Independent umpire NOPSEMA seeks more information from Norway’s Equinor on Bight drilling

A Norwegian company’s plans to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight has been delayed with the independent regulator calling for more information on environmental protections.

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Another delay has hit a Norwegian company’s plans to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight, with the independent regulator calling for more information on environmental protections.

The National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority on Thursday announced it had found “gaps” in the company’s $200 million plan for how it would cope with environmental damage in the sensitive waters.

The independent Federal Government body has been grappling with the decision since February.

In May, it decided it needed another month for exhaustive consideration of Equinor’s 1500-page environmental plan and the 30,000 public submissions it had received in response.

“NOPSEMA has requested further information from Equinor on its environment plan for their proposed petroleum exploration drilling activity in the Great Australian Bight,’’ NOPSEMA announced in a statement.

NOPSEMA said the assessment would be put on hold until Equinor submits its additional information about drilling in The Great Australian Bight.

“The request for information was made in order to clarify matters raised in the plan and to address information gaps identified by NOPSEMA’s specialist team assessing the plan.”

NOPSEMA said the assessment would be put on hold until Equinor submits its additional information. It has been given 60 days to do so.

In its own statement released yesterday, Equinor said the request for more information was a “standard step in the assessment process”.

“Equinor will submit the additional information within the time frame outlined by NOPSEMA to progress the assessment process,” it said. “Equinor remains committed to the opportunity to explore the Great Australian Bight, which we consider to be a prospective asset in our global exploration portfolio.

“Based on the industry’s experience, we know NOPSEMA accepts less than 10 per cent of plans on first submission. Equinor has always expected to work through an iterative process of resubmission before NOPSEMA accepts the EP.”

Wilderness Society South Australia director Peter Owen called on NOPSEMA to abandon its blackout policy on commenting about specifics of company submissions to tell the public what had been lacking in the Equinor plan.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young called on all South Australian MPs to add their names to a Bill to ban drilling in the Great Australian Bight.

Large oil reserves are known to exist under The Bight. Their commercial quality is unknown and drilling will establish this at the Stromlo-1 site, which has a sea floor depth of 2239m. Thirteen wells have previously been drilled in The Bight, dating back to the 1960s.

Equinor, which is owned by the Norwegian government, wants to drill an exploration well next year, 476km west of Port Lincoln and 372km south of Head of Bight.

If a major oil resource was discovered, it could produce oil for 20 years or more.