Troubled waters: Woodside’s Scott Reef plans spark fresh fears

Woodside Energy is pushing ahead with plans for underwater surveys at Scott Reef, more than two years after Western Australia’s environmental watchdog raised serious concerns about irreversible damage from its proposed Browse gas development.

The energy giant has submitted an environmental plan to offshore regulator NOPSEMA for seabed surveys that could run around the clock for up to 90 days a year over five years, prompting fresh concerns about the risks to endangered pygmy blue whales and green sea turtles.

The application follows the release last week of a previously undisclosed letter from WA’s Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), detailing its concerns about the potential environmental impacts of Woodside’s broader Browse gas project.

In the letter, the EPA warned that the project would have “significant, serious and irreversible” impacts on Scott Reef, located off WA’s Kimberley coast.

The surveys would include seabed drilling, geological sampling, sonar surveys and sub-bottom profiling using equipment, including boomers and sparkers.

Woodside said the data would help identify potential pipeline routes, drilling-unit anchoring locations and infrastructure designs for future gas development.

The Conservation Council of Western Australia (CCWA) said conducting the activities in a sensitive area like Scott Reef was “not something that should even be contemplated”.

“While Geophysical and Geotechnical Surveys are not exactly the same as seismic blasting, the noise emitted from the multibeam echosounders is also extremely loud, up to 245 dB,” said CCWA Executive Director Matt Roberts.

Mr Roberts said Scott Reef was an important feeding ground for endangered pygmy blue whales and was located near critical nesting habitat for endangered green sea turtles.

“The Scott Reef complex is the only identified foraging area for blue whales on their southern migration, so this proposal is very concerning,” he said.

Woodside gained approval last year to extend the operation of its North West Shelf gas export plant until 2070.

It plans to use gas from the Browse basin to help supply the facility.

In its environmental plan, the company said the proposed activities were unlikely to have a significant impact on nationally protected environmental matters.

Greenpeace Australia Pacific (GAP) recently nominated Scott Reef for National Heritage listing based on its ecological and scientific values.

GAP senior campaigner Hannah Schuch described Woodside’s proposal as “ludicrous”.

“This plan from Woodside piles on the existing harms that could come from its reckless plans to drill for gas at Scott Reef,” she said.

“Industrial activity at Scott Reef, like drilling or blasting, could force whales away from vital habitats and off their migration pathways and, according to independent expert analyses, have deadly consequences for pygmy blue whales and green turtles – it is a completely unacceptable plan and should not be allowed to go ahead.”