A traditional owner has filed a legal challenge to the approval of seismic blasting for Woodside’s Scarborough offshore gas project in Western Australia.
Mardudhunera woman Raelene Cooper is seeking a judicial review of the offshore petroleum regulator Nopsema’s decision to grant the approval despite concerns consultation with traditional owners had been inadequate.
The case is the first challenge to a new offshore petroleum approval since Tiwi people secured a landmark victory in the federal court last year that overturned the drilling approval for Santos’s Barossa gas project off the Northern Territory.
Gas giant Woodside plans to develop the Scarborough gasfield for the export of liquefied natural gas. Estimates for the amount of greenhouse gas emissions the project will produce over its lifetime range from 880m to 1.6bn tonnes.
Environment groups including Greenpeace have also raised concerns about dredging near sensitive turtle habitat and the effects of seismic blasting on endangered whales.
Cooper said she was worried about the effect seismic blasting would have on sea country but had not had the opportunity to explain this properly to Woodside.
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“The activities happening in our sea country are affecting places of cultural significance and disrupting our songlines,” she alleged. “The whales are showing us all around the world that they are in trouble, and if they are in trouble then so is our very existence.
“Woodside are not above the law and they’re not above our cultural lore.”
The Environmental Defenders Office, which is representing Cooper, said Cooper would allege Woodside had failed to adequately consult its client about seismic blasting and had not taken the time to “gather all the relevant information about our client’s sea country and interests”.
Nopsema approved the seismic blasting last month but attached a condition that Woodside needed to carry out further consultation before any testing commenced.
The EDO will argue the regulator should not have granted the approval before the criteria for consultation were met and, alternatively, that seismic testing cannot commence before Woodside has consulted Cooper.
“Nopsema approved this blasting on July 31, but said more consultation needed to be done, because what Woodside has done so far didn’t meet Nopsema’s requirements,” EDO special counsel Clare Lakewood said.
“Last week, less than a fortnight later, Woodside said they were ready to start seismic blasting.” Lakewood alleged that they could not have done “meaningful, respectful and thorough consultation” in that short time.
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A spokesperson for Woodside said it would “vigorously defend its ability…
2023-08-18 04:02:38
Original from www.theguardian.com
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