Environment Minister Murray Watt rocks the green movement as he grants approval for North West Shelf gas expansion

Environment Minister Murray Watt has dismissed the opposition of UNESCO and a string of activists’ claims around a critical scientific study to approve Woodside’s decades-long extension of the North West Shelf gas plant.

Environment Minister Murray Watt. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

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Environment Minister Murray Watt has dismissed the opposition of UNESCO and a string of activists’ claims around a critical scientific study to approve Woodside’s decades-long extension of the North West Shelf gas plant.

Senator Watt’s decision to allow Woodside to continue operating the plant on Western Australia’s Burrup Peninsula to 2070 sparked the company’s shares to surge by as much as 4 per cent, adding about $1.7bn to the company’s value.

The approval, which already looks set to be challenged in court, is subject to what Senator Watt described as strict conditions that took into account the impact of air emissions on the nearby rock art in the area.

“I have ensured that adequate protection for the rock art is central to my proposed decision,” Senator Watt said.

“I have provided the proponent with an opportunity to comment within the statutory time frame of 10 business days, and I will consider the proponent’s comments before a final decision is made. While this process is ongoing, I will not be making further comment.”

While Woodside, industry and unions welcomed the decision, environmental and Indigenous activists opposed to the plan flagged potential legal action to challenge the approval.

 Woodside chief executive Meg O’Neill said she was “delighted” by the minister’s decision and shrugged off suggestions of possible court challenges. “Our intention is to get off to business,” Ms O’Neill said. “When we have approvals legally granted from the appropriate authorities, that’s a basis on which we have to make investment decisions. So we intend to proceed full speed ahead.”

The sign-off came hours after Australia’s hopes of securing a World Heritage listing for the Murujuga rock art on the same ­Burrup Peninsula that hosts the North West Shelf were dashed by UNESCO.

The Karratha gas plant of the North West Shelf Project. Picture: Woodside

A draft recommendation prepared for the UN agency’s upcoming July meeting of the World Heritage Committee in Paris recommended sending the application back to Australia due to concerns about the impact of industry on Murujuga rock art. The recommendation said it would refer the application back to allow Australia to “prevent any further industrial development adjacent to, and within, the Murujuga Cultural Landscape” and “develop an appropriate decommissioning and rehabilitation plan for existing industrial activities”.

UNESCO’s draft decision followed days of controversy around the latest findings of the WA government-sponsored study into whether industrial emissions were harming the Murujuga rock art. Archaeologist Benjamin Smith on Monday came forward with what he described as proof that it was current industry, rather than a now-defunct power plant from the 1970s, that was responsible for damage found in rocks near the Burrup’s heavy industry.

Woodside Energy chief executive Meg O’Neill

The chief statistician involved in the study, Adrian Baddeley – who, like other scientists in the study, has been barred from speaking to the media – emailed WA’s Department of Water and Environmental Regulation complaining of “unacceptable interference” by the government in the study’s summary. The official study is understood to have been a central component in Senator Watt’s assessment of the project.

Raelene Cooper, a former chair of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corp and co-founder of Save Our Songlines, vowed to pursue the matter through the legal system. “See you in court,” Ms Cooper said in response to the news. “I’m not on my own, I’m bringing warriors from this ngurra with me.”

Ms Cooper had previously achieved success in securing what proved to be a short-lived legal injunction against a seismic program at Woodside Energy’s Scarborough gas project.

The Ngarluma Yindjibarndi Foundation – the traditional owner group on whose land the North West Shelf plant sits – said it had not received a copy of Senator Watt’s approval or the conditions and like many other traditional owner groups did not have the right of consent over developments affecting its land, waters and sacred places. “Our vision is one in which Aboriginal people are not merely consulted, but are respected as decision-makers for their own lands and waters,” a foundation spokesman said.

Save Our Songlines co-founder Raelene Cooper.

Greenpeace Australia Pacific chief executive David Ritter described Senator Watt’s approval as a “terrible decision” that would bring Woodside one step closer to drilling at Scott Reef in the Timor Sea, which is home to a number of threatened and endangered marine species.

“The North West Shelf facility is one of Australia’s dirtiest and most polluting fossil-fuel projects,” Mr Ritter said. “This approval brings Woodside’s toxic gas plans closer to Scott Reef, holds back the clean energy transition underway in WA, and fuels growing climate damage in Australia and around the world.

Greens leader Larissa Waters said her party would be encouraging environmental groups and Indigenous activists to take legal action against the decision, which she said would mean “supercharged floods, fires and species extinctions”.

Teal MP Kate Chaney, who had previously argued that extending the plant would be “unacceptable”, said the conditions imposed on the plant would need to be exceptionally strong.

Greens leader Larissa Waters. Picture: NewsWire / Luis Enrique Ascui

The Climate Council’s Greg Bourne – a former manager with BP at the North West Shelf – said the approval would haunt the Albanese government.

“They’ve just approved one of the most polluting fossil fuel projects in a generation, fuelling climate chaos for decades to come,” Mr Bourne said.

He said the global market was already “awash with gas”. “It is rubbish to say that Australia needs this gas when the lion’s share is marked for export and none of it will be used on the east coast,” he said. “It’s bad for the climate, bad for Australia’s economy, and completely out of step with where the world is heading.”

Union leaders including Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Farrow said the decision would ensure the future of hundreds of their members.

WA Premier Roger Cook also welcomed the decision, and said he firmly believed the project could be extended in a way that managed risks to the environment and supported WA jobs.

Mr Cook defended the merits of the official rock art monitoring program report, describing allegations that the executive summary was doctored as “disgraceful”.

Senator Watt said the government had not given up on UNESCO World Heritage listing for Murujuga and hit out at the “factual inaccuracies” that he said had influenced UNESCO’s draft decision. The Burrup Peninsula, or Murujuga, is home to more than one million ancient Aboriginal petroglyphs and is widely considered one of the most important rock art sites in the world.