Woodside Energy says independent modelling shows its proposed Browse to North West Shelf (NWS) Project represents a significant opportunity to strengthen Australia’s energy security, support the energy transition and deliver long-term economic benefits for Western Australia and the nation.
An economic impact assessment by Deloitte Access Economics estimates the Browse to NWS Project could contribute a long-term uplift of more than $141 billion in gross domestic product nationally and more than $56 billion in taxes, including $19.8 billion in petroleum resource rent tax (PRRT).
Related article: Greenpeace Australia Pacific and Woodside settle court case
According to the report, Browse could deliver:
- a long-term uplift of around $147 billion in gross state product for Western Australia and $141 billion in gross domestic product nationally
- up to 4,760 direct and indirect full-time equivalent jobs across Australia at peak operations
- approximately $56.2 billion in taxes, royalties and excise, including around $19.8 billion in PRRT
- approximately 80% of economic impacts flowing to industries outside oil and gas, including construction, services and public services.
Woodside CEO Liz Westcott says, “Browse is Australia’s biggest undeveloped offshore gas resource and represents a major opportunity for the nation at a time when energy security matters more than ever.
“Independent modelling shows Browse has the potential to power homes and businesses, support thousands of Australian jobs and generate significant revenue for governments while also helping to manage the risks and costs of the energy transition.”
However, Greenpeace Australia Pacific says Woodside’s Browse gas report is “so ludicrous it reads like satire”.
Greenpeace Australia Pacific senior campaigner Hannah Schuch says, “It is nothing but the self-serving tosh expected from a multinational gas corporation exploiting the global energy crisis to drill for more expensive, volatile and polluting gas to export for profit.
“Claiming a massive carbon bomb would somehow help the net zero transition is delusional. If Woodside’s reckless Browse gas project went ahead, it would be one of the most polluting projects in the country and turn one of Australia’s last pristine oceanic reef systems, Scott Reef, into an industrial gas zone.
“Woodside continuously fails to deliver gas to West Australians. According to the DomGas Alliance less than 4% of gas from Woodside’s Pluto facility has been supplied to the local market—far short of the 15% requirement.
“The global energy crisis has laid bare the dangers of fossil fuel dependence. Western Australia has access to world-class renewable energy resources, which modelling shows could power the state’s homes, hospitals and key industries with clean, cheap and affordable energy. Western Australia has a choice: displace gas with renewables, or displace renewables with gas.”
The Australian Conservation Foundation CEO Adam Bandt says, “Economically and environmentally, Woodside’s Browse proposal is a disaster that should be stopped in its tracks.
“This is big gas greed, and people and nature will pay the price. Exported coal and gas comes back to Australia as heatwaves, bushfires, floods, and coral bleaching. There can be no new coal or gas mines if we’re to tackle the climate crisis.
“The gas industry makes big profits selling Australia’s gas overseas, then pays hardly any gas tax and leaves the rest of us to pick up the tab.”
Related article: Emails show Woodside lobbying over gas project conditions
Final advice on Woodside’s $30 billion proposal to open up the Browse gas basin is to be handed to Environment Minister Murray Watt as soon as next month, according to ABC News.
