In a creative and controversial effort to prevent BP’s proposed exploration drilling in the oceans off the great Australian Bight ‘The Great Australian Bight Alliance’ (Which includes the Wilderness Society, Sea Shepherd Australia, Sea Shepherd UK, Surfrider Foundation Australia, the Australian Marine Conservation Society, Mirning and Kokatha elders and Oil Free Seas Kangaroo Island) have controversially staged a mock oil spill outside BP Headquarters in Melbourne today.Some of the Protesters handed out flyers and gave speeches around the mock cleanup site, while other protesters wearing white jumpsuits and respiratory protection smeared in black stains cleaned up pretend oil spilling from what looked like tipped over BP oil barrels. One of the protesters signs read “BP has no right to risk the bight”.
Back in 2015 Australia’s offshore oil and gas authority, NOPSEMA, originally rejected BP’s first application to drill exploration wells in the great Australian bight, due to “inadequacies with its drilling plans”. Earlier this year, NOPSEMA reportedly elaborated on these concerns by claiming that they basically had no backup plans if things were to go south. In a report to the public on their website, they had stated that “BP needs a comprehensive risk assessment and a comprehensive oil pollution emergency plan. Regardless of these concerns, BP have gone right ahead and pushed their lobbyists to make the deal happen, quick and quietly.
Melbourne BP HQ Building 14/04/2016 – (Photo courtesy of Glenn Walker)
The Great Australian Bight is one of the worlds largest oceanic bights. It sits along the southern coastline of mainland Australia. These pristine and relatively shallower waters of the bight are highly biodiverse with a range of marine life and fragile ecosystems, particularly zoo-plankton, due to the particular series of oceanic currents and swells. This makes it one of the worlds most important and abundantly thriving whale hotspots during the winter time. The Wilderness Society fears the drilling would put the Bight’s diverse marine life (including humpback, sperm, blue and beak whales)at risk. An oil spill in the Bight would also be devastating for South Australia’s $442 million fishing industry and its tourism industries in coastal regions, worth more than $1 billion. The two industries employ more than 10,000 people full-time.
“We are here to tell BP it has no right to risk the pristine waters of the Great Australian Bight, and that the opposition to its plans is growing in Australia and around the world,” said Wilderness Society South Australia Director Peter Owen.
“We want to remind people that BP was the company responsible for the world’s biggest oil spill accident, the Deepwater Horizon tragedy in 2010, when 800 million litres of oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico for 87 days. BP totally stuffed up in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Now BP wants to drill in the deeper, more treacherous and more remote waters of the Great Australian Bight. You have got to be kidding.”
The Great Australian Bight – (Photo sourced by rebelonarainbow.com)
Back in March, 2016, BP resubmitted its environmental plan for exploration drilling in the great Australian Bight to NOPSEMA and have outlined their plans publicly on a website they had setup for public inquires. BP officially opened one of its first key infrastructure projects in South Australia, in support of the BP-Statoil Great Australian Bight exploration program. In a media release, BP stated:
“BP is proposing to drill four exploration wells in Commonwealth marine waters in the Great Australian Bight (GAB). The program will seek to determine whether commercial quantities of hydrocarbon resources exist within the permit areas. The proposed GAB drilling area has water depths of approximately 1,000-2,500m. At the closest point, the proposed GAB drilling area is approximately 400 km west of Port Lincoln and 300 km southwest of Ceduna in South Australia.”
“The wells will be drilled using a mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU) that will either be dynamically positioned (DP), moored with anchors, or a combination of these methods.”
Sea Shepherd Australia Managing Director Jeff Hansen, who was at the protest said:
“The Great Australian Bight is a global marine treasure. The Bight’s pristine waters are a haven for whales, boasting the world’s most important southern right whale nursery as well as many humpback, sperm, blue and beak whales. These are the same whales we fight so hard to protect from slaughter in the Southern Ocean.
“The Bight is Australia’s most important sea lion nursery. It also supports dolphins, seals, orcas, great white sharks, some of Australia’s most important fisheries, and magnificent birds such as the albatross and the white-bellied sea eagle.”
Be sure to share this with your peers and help raise awareness against BP’s proposals in the area.
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