Woodside sold the project to an insubstantial company to avoid a few hundred million in decommissioning costs: now it and its competitors will pay the price.
WA Premier Mark McGowan warned Alcoa to lift its game or face curtailed mining, but his successor Roger Cook slashed water supply protections after a possibly empty threat from the US miner.
Australia’s offshore energy regulator has launched an investigation into an oil and gas spill at a Woodside Energy project off the Pilbara coast in Western Australia.
An estimated 16,000 litres of petroleum products were released into the Indian Ocean on 8 May during decommissioning at the company’s Griffin field, 58km north-west of Exmouth and 60km from Ningaloo marine park.
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Boiling Cold investigations are sometimes published elsewhere to increase readership and maximise the impact of the journalism.
I worked in oil & gas in commercial and engineering roles for 20 years. Since 2016, I have written for The West Australian, WAtoday, The Guardian and Boiling Cold, winning five WA Media Awards.
Woodside sold the project to an insubstantial company to avoid a few hundred million in decommissioning costs: now it and its competitors will pay the price.
The failure of Cliff Head's owners, Pilot Energy and Triangle Energy, to meet payroll does not bode well for their ability to pay the $200 million decommissioning cost.
Petra Stock and Peter Milne
