Mining billionaire Andrew Forrest steps up fight against big oil and gas

Mining billionaire Andrew Forrest has escalated his war against oil and gas producers, and Woodside in particular, flying by helicopter off the remote WA coast to lambast its $18 billion Scarborough gas export project as a “carbon dioxide bomb”.

Just weeks after the COP28 international climate meeting in Dubai in mid-December called for the world to transition away from burning fossil fuels for energy, Forrest was flying over the ocean off Western Australia’s north-west surveilling a vessel conducting seismic testing of the Scarborough gas field.

Andrew Forrest wants all projects in Australia to be judged on their climate impact.Credit: Emma Dolzadelli, Minderoo Foundation

The December COP communique was the first to mention fossil fuel, and Forrest blamed the earlier 27 omissions on a “cynical charade” of lobbying by oil and gas companies.

“They’ve had thousands of their little soldiers riding around in their little suits, pushing back on anyone who would even mention that fossil fuel is destroying our planet,” he said.

“That absolutely cynical charade [is] as ridiculous as people saying renewable energy somehow is an eyesore.”

The iron ore magnate turned green-energy evangelist said instead of investing in renewable energy, oil and gas companies had doubled down on peddling “poisonous energy”.

“So you’re getting this furious race to destroy the planet,” he said. “The first one in before the planet dies is going to make the most money.”

Forrest, who less than four years ago pulled out of  gas exploration in WA’s remote Kimberley region, has since pushed his ASX-listed iron ore miner Fortescue and personal investment company Tattarang aggressively towards renewable energy.

Fortescue aims to cut its substantial emissions from burning gas and diesel to zero by 2030 – well before any rivals – and has a new division to make hydrogen from renewable energy to replace fossil fuels in some applications.

Last week, Tattarang subsidiary Squadron Energy started work on a 414-megawatt wind farm in NSW – the state’s largest – and committed to building 14,000 megawatts of renewable energy, enough to power 6 million homes.

Forrest disagreed that wind and solar farms were unsightly. “I can tell you what is the bigger eyesore, it is destroying your own children’s future.”

Now that Australia has at COP28 signed up to “accelerating action in this critical decade”, Forrest wants all levels of government to include climate change in their environmental assessments.

In October, the Federal Court ruled Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek did not have to consider a proposal’s impact on global warming, leading to renewed calls for inclusion of a so-called “climate trigger” in federal legislation.

Forrest wants Woodside’s Scarborough project included in such climate assessments.

Woodside is halfway through building Scarborough, which by its own figures will produce 878 million tonnes of carbon pollution from producing the gas and the much larger “scope 3” emissions from using it – equal to almost two years of Australia’s national emissions.

The Perth-based company is yet to receive approval to operate Scarborough from the offshore environment regulator NOPSEMA that includes Scope 3 emissions in its assessment.

A Woodside spokeswoman said the company declined to comment on Forrest’s opinions. In the past, it has said that the use of gas to displace coal is a net climate benefit.

In December, Forrest attacked Woodside chief executive Meg O’Neill as “hard-edge trained by the biggest liar we’ve ever seen around climate change” – her former employer, ExxonMobil – in comments labelled “personal vitriol” by Australia’s largest oil and gas company.

Concern over subsea sounds and whales

Forrest was speaking about the Scarborough project from the Pangaea Explorer marine research vessel of the Minderoo Foundation – the charity of Forrest and his estranged wife Nicola – and a helicopter above a seismic survey vessel chartered by Woodside.

Woodside started the seismic testing on December 1, immediately after it received an approval from the environment regulator. The work had been delayed by legal action by a traditional owner.

The Geo Coral seismic survey vessel tows sound sensors to pick up below seabed echoes from air guns it lets off every five seconds.Credit: Emma Dolzadelli, Minderoo Foundation

Seismic testing involves compressed air guns releasing sound waves in the water and recording the echoes that bounce off the geological formations beneath the seabed. It is controversial because the sounds can interfere with the behaviour of whales and damage their hearing.

Forrest said the soundwaves were like “shock systems to marine life” for dozens of miles around and there was inadequate research on their long-term effect on the environment.

A Woodside spokeswoman said seismic surveys had been safely used by the international oil and gas industry for decades.

She said available evidence showed properly conducted seismic surveys do not impact marine animals, although the sound could temporarily affect an individual whale’s hearing, communication and behaviour.

Woodside’s plan for the December survey included avoiding areas where sound-sensitive species were likely to be, and halting the survey if marine mammals were detected nearby.

The offshore regulator that approved Woodside’s plan recently included reducing the impact of the advanced “4D” seismic survey method used for Scarborough in its research priorities as it could have an unacceptable impact on threatened whale species.

This week Forrest will attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he plans to push companies to more urgently tackle climate change.

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