Should oil exploration in the Great Australian Bight keep surfers up at night? Or no?
A week or so ago, a protest campaign began against a proposed exploratory oil well in the Great Australian Bight, kicked into gear by the (wonderful) journalist Sean Doherty.
“Pretty much the whole surfable Australian coast would be covered in oil. It would be Australia’s own Deepwater Horizon,” wrote Sean in the first of a series of Instagram posts, which snowballed into multiple pro surfer feeds.
On Coastalwatch, Nick Carroll wrote:
The lease where Equinor plans to drill for oil and gas is 327 k’s off Ceduna, South Australia, in about 2.5 kilometres of abyssal plain ocean. To get to any likely reserves, Equinor will have to then drill through roughly three kilometres of seabed rock. This is on par with the deepest sea-oil drilling in the world – in one of the most windblown, swell-hammered places you can imagine.
Reckon something could go wrong with this scenario?
Equinor clearly does.
Earlier today, a rebuttal appeared in an obscure conservative website by another surfer, Fred Pawle.
Let’s pick our free-of-charge 400 words.
It’s an illusion. It is based on Equinor’s map outlining all the areas that could be affected by any one of 100 scenarios…
…The confusion began when Greenpeace tweeted the map, saying that a spill “could hit anywhere from South Australian to New South Wales”. Journalist Nick Carroll mistook this, instead saying on a surf website that Equinor “clearly” believes “something could go wrong”, and that “a worst-case spill would put oil on every surfable coast of Australia south of 30 degrees S.” In other words, the well has the potential to create a spill roughly 10 times the size of the spill from Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, the biggest accident in history.
An open letter from a group of surf celebrities, including Mick Fanning and Taj Burrow, to Equinor says an oil spill in the Great Australian Bight would be “catastrophic” and the “southern coastline of Australia would never be the same”. The chief slogans for the campaign are “Fight for the Bight” and “Big oil don’t surf”.
But big oil does surf. It produces the byproducts from which surfboards and wetsuits are made. And of course it provides the fuel for the planes that take surfers, professional and hobbyist, to the world’s idyllic surf destinations. It even produced the fuel for the jetskis Burrow and Fanning were using to catch waves during the Cyclone Oma swell on the Gold Coast last week.
As pro surfers for decades, Burrow and Fanning have flown more times around the world than almost all other people in history except pilots. By joining this campaign, they are not telling oil miners to stop exploring for oil, which they rely on daily, just not to do it near a coastline where a misinformed scare campaign has infuriated some of their fans.
The rationale for the protest is that the Great Australian Bight is too deep and wild for oil exploration. But Equinor is using equipment that is industry standard, and includes a 100-tonne capping stack, a new precaution that became mandatory after the Deepwater Horizon spill. Equinor has oil wells in similar conditions to the Great Australian Bight off Norway and Canada.
The protesters also ignore the 14 exploratory wells that have been drilled in the Great Australian Bight since 1972, and the hundreds that have extracted oil from the nearby Bass Strait, which is in shallower water but still subject to similar ocean conditions, since 1965.
There are some signs that the famous surfers and journalists objecting to the project have not only misread the project’s risks but also some of their market. All the above surf websites have received comments from surfers pointing out the hypocrisy of people who use oil-based products objecting to oil mining, and questioning the protesters’ exaggerated fears of a spill. Then again, they are also not short of supportive comments agreeing with the risk of a “catastrophe”.
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Hey you all , just a little footnote do a little bit of research into how much energy is consumed on a daily basis to provide the world wide web yep the good old internet.
Talk about the elephant in the room.
I don’t know the facts behind drilling in the Bight, but the hyprocrisy is real with it comes to fossil fuels. Environmentalists who repeatedly, voluntarily get in cars and on planes claim that they are stuck in a system they didn’t create, etc. and their actions aren’t the cause or the solution. Right. Sounds a lot like what a South Carolina slaveholder in 1850 would have said. I’m all for transitioning to renewable energy but let’s be a little self-aware in the meantime before we so confidently declare that fossil fuels companies are so despicable.
“Equinor has oil wells in similar conditions to the Great Australian Bight off Norway”. Simply not true. Deepest exploration or production well in Norway is 500m shallower and significantly closer to infastructure and ports that might help respond to an emergency alot quicker.
The guy is right if he’s talking about sea state. Equinor drill in the Barents sea, this is about as nasty a place as it gets, and further offshore than the Bight project. Most Norway wells are in shallower water (still deep enough to require a floating rig though), but it’s worth pointing out that Equinor have drilled wells in 2,000 m water depth off Brasil. Modern rigs have no problem drilling in 2,000m water (I have drilled many off West Africa in that deep water).
Look mate I hate right wing ideologues speaking shit as much as anyone else but the only thing he got wrong is water depth, not sea state or distance from shore.
Must have paddled a long way out
We all need to stop flying.
Australians, americans, Brazilians…
Why all, us, can’t learn through all that’s happening now in beautiful places, because these scrooge people and theirs companies???
Someone here, listened about the two tragedies in Brazil?
The two crimes against cities and his populations… by mining companies…
Mariana, Minas Gerais state, and the two companies Vale (Brazilian) and BHP (yes, Australian) …
The other Brumadinho, Minas Gerais state, with Vale again…
Thousands of people dead…
More than two entire cities destroyed…
About 365 Km of rivers deads…
Thousands of all sort of native animals… deads.
Thousands km of native forests devastated…
In one case, Mariana, the chemical sludge came by river to another state, and take Regencia beach (excellent place for surf) at Espírito Santo state, killing fishes and leaving an entire community of fishermen without their jobs… Regência was closed by months to surf and diving… residues from the chemical sludge reached the sanctuary island of Abrolhos…
Go search for the images at Youtube… terrifying… like the Japan or Indo Tsunamis…
Fuck those companies.
Fuck theirs pretense promises of lots of jobs and money.
I will always stay by the side of people and their places.
Yeah, that’s fucked up bro.
I read all about it.
What to do?
Hi Bex
Complicated to always talk about how things walks in Brazil.
I can assure you that we have the world’s most corrupt political and business class, with the greatest benefits and perks, while most of the population struggles to survive, or simply exists.
That’s why I want the big companies to screw themselves these days.
I’m a patriot for people, not by land or by peon on masts.
VALE, the mining company is among one of the top five in the world… In 5 years he has married 02 gigantic disasters, killed hundreds of people and animals, has disvastated forests, contaminated for decades rivers, and his toxic mud reaching the seas.
The two accidents in deposits of highly toxic ores (millions of cubic meters), with failures of alarm and security systems, physical failures of design and execution, negligence of information and incomplete technical reports… And the most absurd, plan of evacuation of hazardous areas, incapable and adulterated, in time and routes of escape, to the local population.
Mariana, VALE and Samarco (representing BHP in Brazil) propping the payment of indemnities to victims ‘ relatives and injured survivors, systematically resorting to the decisions of justice to not have to pay the payment as it should be done.
In Brumadinho, same procedure, before/during/after… Same cowardly and criminal attitudes
In the hearings of the investigations of the accident of Brumadinho, with the CEOS of VALE before the politicians (many of whom receive the company’s bribe) and courts, in the minute of silence in honor of the victims, all present arose in respect… Only one person remained seated… The president of VALE!
Soon after the minute of silence, this worm said that “VALE cannot be massacred by accidents because it is one of the jewels of Brazil… And that generates employment and revenues to the country “…
These companies such as VALE, Petrobrás, pharmaceutical conglomerates, health plan managers, large public and private banks, and large and renowned CEO’s and their companies, paying huge bribes, and practice a violent lobby with all politicians parties, so that they are always exempt from fees, public contribution, and in the face of tragedies, most of the interlocutors at their side
It is worth remembering that VALE is the largest mining company in the country, with several types of areas of toxic ores, including within natural sanctuaries in several areas throughout the country (Amazon, Cerrado, Pantanal, historical cities listed like World Heritage Site) and pipeline lines for ores cruising all country to the coast.
Many of these areas for storage of ores, obsolete as those of Mariana and Brumadinho…
Not if regulation regulates access rights.
It’s really good that they held the paddle out protest on the first Sunday of the month so all the Bass straight FIFO gas rig workers were on swing break and could attend.
so if we believe in Climate change , which I think is a given…there is shit loads of evidence showing fossil fuels contribute heavily to this problem……we are at the start of understanding the cause …..and are now questioning and changing our lifestyles…..
have a quick look at…https://http://www.newyorker.com/news/dail...
If I may:
Most people are well intentioned but poorly informed. Also, most people are hypocrites way more often than they’d like to admit.
There might be a small number of people who are happy for Equinor to drill anywhere else, just not in the bight. This is NIMBY but at least there is no logical contradictions when they pick up a new surfboard and drive to the surf and have a holiday in Indo.
Most people don’t like the fact that the world uses close on 100 million barrels of oil every day and dammit if there was only some way we could stop it and keep our modern lifestyle.
Lots of people drove to the beach and paddled out on their petrochemical based boards and posed for the Instagram photos. It’s strange that while this was happening, there were wells being drilled on the North West Shelf, the Timor Sea, and in a few months in Bass Strait as well. These wells are drilled in deep water, and in the NWS, subject to cyclones, and in Bass Strait, subject to Southern Ocean swell (the same swells that regularly wreck the Sydney to Hobart).
If we really want to cut emissions and maintain our privileged lifestyle, as well as stop climate change, we need to make difficult decisions regarding where we get our energy. Who’s prepared to give the green light for a Nuclear power plant at say Warrnambool or Albany? How many people who are against Nuclear have actually researched Thorium and pebble bed reactors? How many people know what Boron does to a nuclear reaction? Fuck all do. But everyone knows about Fukushima and Chernobyl. For what it’s worth, how many people really know what fracking is?
Getting on the Patagonia instagram feed isn’t going to do much. Nor will writing to NOPSEMA, they are just the regulator and will green light it provided all the boxes are ticked. If you want real change, lobby your MP to make legislative change. Argue for Cap and Trade (which puts limits on emissions) rather than imposing a carbon tax, which is just licence to pollute. Argue for all drilling to be stopped if you want – we could be like NZ – but that oil’s going to come from somewhere while you keep driving your car and ride your surfboard, regardless of whether you buy your clothes from Patagonia or not.
You could put the nuke reactor in a thousand places in Oz where there are no peeps.
You Know that uranium wiil be used by someone eventually.
Should be massive green protests to USE it not not use it. Until they do they can all suck dicks while deciding what sex they are.
Well it has to be near to the existing grid or all that power will go nowhere, and being close to water is kind of a must. I think that’s why there was a proposal to put one in Warrnambool back in the day.
Politically you could just put one on the north east coast of Tassie, and send all the power to the mainland via Basslink or whatever it’s called (existing undersea power cable). If it blows up well it’s New Zealand’s problem(!) Yes that was a joke.
Fair nuff.
how about thinking of changing your consciousness for a start ,which means changing your consuming habits , and the way you look at our home planet Earth!
The amount of kids I saw on the weekend , joining in was incredible , young mums and dads….family/community being educated and also actually coming down on Sunday to protest…forget about the silly argument that we all use petroleum products therefore we are hypcrits….we are evolving and for the better
Brutus, I agree about changing consciousness. I am actually on the same page as you. I have a carbon footprint way bigger than i’d like, and unlike others I believe that climate change is man made. That’s on us.
I am no shaper but 20-30,000 odd boards makes a big pile whether the footprint belongs to the shaper or the purchasers. Imagine how big that pile of boards would be. Or all those flights we take every year. Yes individually we are only one person on that plane full of 400 people, but it all adds up, and those planes use up literal tons of fuel each flight. I am not meaning to single you out, because I know you are involved in the green surfboard push and I support it. I’m just pointing out that we all have an impact, and some more than others.
It’s a bit like Yvon Chouinard, if he really wanted to make a difference (as he says in his book), he would have sold Patagonia, put all the money in a non-profit and spent the money tax free on environmental causes. But he didn’t, and it doesn’t matter how many big oil don’t surf stickers he makes, until his company stops making disposable products, they are part of the problem, not the cure.
How many of us are really ready and able to put our cocks on the block and permanently change our lifestyle and livelihoods?
I think right now , that as humans we are starting to evolve towards a cleaner better planet…having said that we are still spiraling down with increased debt and degradation of our home/living space.
Try to see that we are starting to get a clearer picture of what our lifestyles to date , have caused and that we cannot continue this unsustainable lifestyle, so change starts somewhere….and that’s what we are seeing now , our lifestyles are evolving and being challenged with more and more information available on the internet…..
do you trust the oil lobby……..have a read of how the oil lobby is no different to the tobacco industry…..in fact the Tobacco lobbyists now work for big oil….
https://en.wikipedia.org/wi…
As far as Yvonne goes and Patagonia , they are an outstanding Co , where their products are all fair trade, last longer than any other product , 1% of turnover goes back into the enviroment, 15% of Pat’s taxes go into enviromental issues….he’s never flown business class , drives a shit old car..puts enormous amounts of $’s towards the enviroment…Pats turn over is increasing at such a pace there is now a very big big lump of money generated every year for the enviroment…
Precisely they can afford a Tesla.
Zhang!
Amen! While it’s good to se epeople passionate about a cause 99% of them are so misinformed and getting angry about the worst possible case scenario. The amount of changes since the Deepwater Horizon incident to prevent that happening again were vast.
We drill in Deepwater everywhere, we deep 5km holes everywhere. We drill in rougher seas.
Benefit of it happening here is it will be a majority Australian crew drilling in a highly regulated/monitored environment.
Better that than in some third world country that’s poorly regulated, but hey as long as it’s not in our backyard
After this is over everyone will hitch their JetSki to the back of their troopy and drive off without a care in the world.
Ooh, you’re good at this.
Before BP pulled out of this project, their modelling demonstrated that a spill in Winter would likely hit Victoria and in Summer a spill would likely hit the WA coastline. Equinor also have modelling and maps showing different variables affecting where oil would reach in a spill. We can be clear that there in the case of an oil spill in the Bight, oil would very likely extend well past some of Earth’s last intact ocean wilderness areas. We can also be clear that opposition to this oil exploration in the Great Australian Bight has existed well before Sean Doherty’s committed posts on the issue. To date, 15 local council governments have issued statements opposing the project. The campaign to stop this isn’t just made up of a fringe element of hysterical leftist waxheads. Mainstream institutions and elected local representatives have analysed the data and consulted industries and communities and have come to the conclusion that oil exploration shouldn’t go ahead in the Bight. Years before Sean Doherty mentioned the issue. Is a long quote of a reactionary, right wing extremist Beachgrit’s contribution to the issue?
If you’re from Oz don’t you love how you’ve at least doubled your money on real estate. I’ll bet some here have quadrupled.
There’s only one reason for that.
Government policy.
having a meeting with an ex-board member of Eqinor this week , she wants to spill the beans on what’s really driving them , and why she quit….hmmm …will we ever get to the bottom of it….so I suggest back to Fracking as this only fucks the land and not the ocean , so fracking must be good?
Fracking?
No-one is advocating living off grid and getting rid of every petroleum based productsin our lives….just like there are now “fair Trade practices” for clothing , organic foods accreditation , regulations that make food Co’s actually have to tell you whats in the foods and nutrition , the list goes on…….So
So when we see governments that , eg , that don’t believe in Climate change so they can still rape and pillage the planet for profit , well there are people out there who question and challenge the Governments / Corportaions on if they are thinking of the people’s futures or just their own political careers and lobby group mates…..
There is very big surge in the millenials questioning and challenging the current nationalistic Governments approach to selling Australian rocks and liquids overseas for peanuts…or a couple of thousand jobs..Adani anyone??
No doubt things will change
But do you really think Govts, which are actually just people, hate the world so much and want to wreck the world they have to live in?
https://www.newyorker.com/n… is the love of money and power/profit…..and igonrance?
Brutus supports right-wing politics and neoliberalism so don’t expect too much with regards to him questioning governments and corporations.
FFS , are still bleating about France , I think my track record on saying ,”there is no democracy with lobby groups being part of the system , and profit driven public Co’s are slowly but surely destroying the planet for profit. We are living in a very broken system, and the day of reckoning is approaching fast !”
Well, if you are so easily led that you believe the media when they tell you that Macron is centrist, and if you can’t understand or choose not to understand basic elements of neoliberalism, then I think you should wake up and read some reputable sources; the powers-that-be will laugh at you and play you for a fool.
If you’re going to be some kind of representative, get your shit together.
Fuck it’s genius’s like you , that believe the media about France you haven’t got a clue ya fucken moron, do you read French LOL no don’t answer that
no I would never represent morons like you , as when you finally pull ya head out of ya ring after reading some reputable sources , LOL!!
Haha, because you can speak French your point of view is beyond reproach?
Logic never was your strongpoint.
But abuse is – it seems you haven’t learnt a thing.
Yeah, you’re right and all the political scientists and journalists and other experts are wrong…
I think the term they use for people like you is “useful idiot”.
“In political jargon, a useful idiot is a derogatory term for a person perceived as a propagandist for a cause whose goals they are not fully aware of, and who is used cynically by the leaders of the cause.”
Catch ya mate, all the best.
there you go again , I read French and their news stories , you see a translation , from whatever sources you read , Andrew Bolt?
Abuse we are on BG ya moron , now there’s moronic logic for you ….useful idiot , been called worse how would you describe your self , an intellectual moron?
Andrew Bolt? No, you’re the happy clapper who supports paedos.
oooooh, now a “useful idiot paedo supporter” was Macron one also?
damn now you are getting into the swing of BG ……….now you have fulfilled your Intellectual moronic potential , for all to see …….Alan Jone more your type?
Derek’s not the messiah
Just a very naughty boy.