Great Australian Bight oil drilling: Equinor and Wilderness Society to meet in SA
As an Equinor representative meets the Wilderness Society to discuss the Bight drilling plan, a new poll reveals two thirds are opposed – but half think it will support jobs.
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Drilling for oil in the Great Australian Bight will have a negative impact on the natural environment, two in three respondents to a new poll say.
But more than half believe that exploration off South Australia would be positive for jobs.
The Australia Institute survey of 1464 people was taken late last month, and is part of the institute’s new report into drilling in the Bight.
It comes as Equinor’s head of corporate communications, Reidar Gjaerum, will visit South Australia on Monday and meet with the Wilderness Society.
The Australia Institute SA projects manager, Noah Schultz-Byard, said 65 per cent of Australians expect drilling for oil in the Bight would negatively impact the natural environment.
Three in five believe fishing will be affected, and half think it could impact tourism.
“While many are hopeful that the project would bring jobs, drilling in the Bight would actually create a relatively small number of employment opportunities, significantly fewer than the tens of thousands of already existing jobs that it would put at risk (from a spill),” Mr Schultz-Byard.
More than 10,400 jobs exist in SA’s tourism and aquaculture sectors, according to the report.
“A Bight oil project is likely to be smaller, with job numbers perhaps between 1000 and 1500 people,” the report states.
“The majority of any future employees would be fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) workers who would be flown from around Australia, not people from local regions.”
Mr Schultz-Byard said SA communities were being asked to shoulder “extraordinary risk” if there was an oil spill from the Equinor project.
Equinor’s Reidar Gjaerum will be in Adelaide on Monday, where he will meet with the Wilderness Society SA director Peter Owen.
Mr Owen said he will be making it clear to Equinor that its project lacks a social licence to proceed.
“This is the people of Australia pleading with the people of Norway not to carry out deep sea oil drilling in the Great Australian Bight,” Mr Owen said.
“I have never seen an issue where there is this much community opposition.
“This is simply something that is not supported by a majority of Australians.”
After the meeting, Mr Gjaerum will head to Ceduna where Equinor hopes to put its helipad and land-based operations if its drilling plans progress.
Equinor, which was last month granted an extension by the federal regulator, now has until September 27 to provide further information about its environment plan before approval can be granted.
Federal Resources Minister Matt Canavan, who visited Port Pirie last week, said gas and oil exploration in the Bight was a chance to increase Australia’s energy production and reduce reliance on other countries.
He was also optimistic Equinor’s application to drill in the Bight would be successful.