Blasting retreat a ‘big blow to oil and gas’
Opponents of seismic oil and gas exploration say the dumping of blasting plans for a huge area off the Victorian and Tasmanian coasts is a ‘historic moment’ that should spark reform.
Plans for major oil and gas seismic exploration off the coasts of Victoria and Tasmania have been withdrawn after community and fishing industry opposition, in a potentially significant blow to the sector.
Global exploration firm TGS had planned to use airguns to blast the seafloor across 31,500sq km between Victoria’s Otway coast and Tasmania’s northwest.
The plans – which had been more than halved in size from 77,000sq km – had met with hostility from coastal communities, conservationists and the fishing industry, which feared impacts on a wide range of sealife from krill to whales.
On Thursday, TGS – which critics say had struggled to address regulatory concerns – cited “competing global priorities” for the decision to scrap the exploration, but declined to comment further.
“We have notified (offshore exploration regulator) NOPSEMA of this decision, withdrawing the current environment plan from NOPSEMA assessment,” the company said.
The Australian Marine Conservation Society welcomed the decision, saying it followed 20,000 submissions to NOPSEMA opposing the plans. “Seismic blasting is deadly for marine life and can impact all levels of the food chain, from its very foundations, killing zooplankton more than a kilometre away, to deafening whales and driving them away from their feeding and breeding grounds,” said the society’s Louise Morris.
“We cannot allow more oil and gas industrialisation in Australia’s southeast seas, where marine life is already experiencing multiple threats including climate change, with waters there warming three to four times the global average.
“This is one of two seismic blasting proposals off the seas of southeast Australia, with another seismic data company, CGG, planning to blast in the Otway basin along endangered southern right whale migration routes.”
TGS had insisted its seismic testing would minimise impacts on fishing and marine fauna.
Greens healthy oceans spokesman Peter Whish-Wilson hailed the withdrawal as a “historic moment”. “Community pressure works – increasingly, people from all walks of life are waking up to the dangers of seismic blasting in our oceans,” he said.
Resources Minister Madeleine King said the TGS withdrawal was “a commercial decision for the company involved”.
“Australia has a world-class environmental regulatory regime for offshore oil and gas exploration,” she said.
“All actions undertaken in Australia’s offshore areas are subject to some of the most comprehensive environmental assessment measures in the world.”
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