The Victorian government has given the go-ahead for Beach Energy to produce gas extracted from beneath a national park near the celebrated tourist site the Twelve Apostles.
Victoria’s energy and climate change minister Lily D’Ambrosio has given consent for an existing exploration gas well underneath the Port Campbell national park to be developed into a production well, The Guardian reported.
“Beach Energy has had permission to explore for gas just outside the national park in south-west Victoria since May 2019. The onshore drill site is 450m outside the park, but the bore extends 3.5km out into the ocean, including a 1.3km stretch passing underneath the national park,” the report said.
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“The company’s work at the site became public in June this year when the federal Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources released maps showing areas that had previously been opened to exploration and extraction. The maps revealed the drill site was roughly 5km from the Twelve Apostles and the Great Ocean Road.”
In February Beach Energy applied to convert its exploration well into a production well, meaning it could begin extracting commercial quantities from the reservoir. As the project involved drilling beneath a national park, it required D’Ambrosio’s consent before the state agency Earth Resources Regulation could give final approval. The consent signed by D’Ambrosio says no work can be conducted within the national park. It says the operation is “located on modified freehold land that is considered sufficiently remote enough from any National Parks Act area”.
Victorian Greens deputy leader Ellen Sandell said state support for fossil fuel expansion was “bonkers”, particularly with the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report confirming greenhouse gas emissions from human activity was unequivocally changing the Earth’s climate in ways “unprecedented” for thousands of years.
She said no one would visit the Twelve Apostles if it was surrounded by gas drilling rigs.
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“The risks are very profound for our climate. We know that burning any more gas is contributing to more fires, more floods,” she said.
“There’s also risks to the marine environment—this is an area that is a migratory path for humpback whales and the southern wright whale.”
A Victorian government spokesperson said the Twelve Apostles were protected as a marine national park, separate to the Port Campbell national park, and no drilling could occur within its boundaries.
They said offshore drilling was “subject to strict environmental and safety regulations led by the national authority”.
