Woodside pushes on with Scarborough plan after consultation controversy
Woodside said it had consulted with 11 Indigenous groups since September’s landmark court decision.
Woodside Energy has quietly lodged a fresh application for a seismic program blocked by the Federal Court back in September after objections from an Indigenous campaigner.
The Perth-based oil and gas producer submitted its environment plan for work at its big Scarborough gas field off Western Australia to the federal regulator, the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority, just weeks after the court ruled that an earlier approval invalid.
Save Our Songlines, a group founded by Indigenous woman Raelene Cooper, had brought the Federal Court action on the basis that Woodside had not engaged in adequate consultation with her about its seismic plans.
Since the landmark court decision in late September, Woodside and Ms Cooper have met once. That meeting, Ms Cooper said, had broken down due to concerns Woodside had breached confidentiality over cultural matters she had raised with it.
“Several days later, they immediately resubmitted their seismic EP despite no further consultation occurring since the Federal Court threw out their last one last month,” Ms Cooper said. “This is utterly in keeping with the disrespectful, at times hostile, way that Woodside have engaged with me as a traditional custodian seeking consultation about their plans to keep expanding the Burrup Hub on our sacred land and sea Country. This is yet another chapter in a long, shameful history of arrogance and abuse towards my people by Woodside.“
Scarborough is a central part of Woodside’s plans to expand and extend its big liquefied natural gas plants on WA’s Burrup Peninsula, an area that is also home to one of the world’s largest rock art collections.
Ms Cooper was formerly a member of Murjuga Aboriginal Corporation, the entity established to represent traditional owner groups from the Burrup region, but she quit the group in 2022 amid concerns that it was unable to adequately object to industrial projects in the area.
Since the court ruling, Woodside and chief executive Meg O’Neill have been calling for an overhaul of the environmental approvals process and the uncertainty surrounding consultation obligations. Speaking at the company’s annual investor day in Sydney on Wednesday, Ms O’Neill said the Scarborough project was still on track.
“We continue to engage with the offshore regulator and other stakeholders to progress secondary environmental approvals in support of our targeted first LNG cargo in 2026,” she said.
A Woodside spokeswoman confirmed the new application had been lodged on October 19 and said the company had carried out more consultation on the seismic program in recent weeks.
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