Environment groups meet with Browse Joint Venture Partners to warn of major Kimberley risks

The Wilderness Society (WA) Inc
Joint Media Release
8 January 2010

Environment groups Environs Kimberley and The Wilderness Society met today with Browse LNG Joint Venture partners to discuss the risks associated with government plans to impose a gas processing (LNG) plant and port at James Price Point, 50km north of Broome.

The companies (BP, Shell and Chevron) were advised that attempts by Federal Resources Minister Ferguson and the WA state government to force LNG companies onto the Kimberley coast and pre-empt environmental and social impact assessments are likely to heighten public concern and opposition, increase the likelihood of legal challenges and ultimately slow down any approval process.

The resultant blowout in project timelines could make it unviable, according to Environs Kimberley Director Martin Pritchard.

“Minister Ferguson placed conditions on the companies lease retention that require them to commit to developing Browse at James Price Point unless an alternative option can be developed more quickly.

“Given all the issues and concerns around James Price Point, there are serious doubts about whether an LNG plant could be built at James Price Point and begin to process gas quicker than at alternative sites,” Mr Pritchard said.

“By trying to take a short cut through established processes, Minister Ferguson is opening up the proposal to legal challenges and other significant delays,” said Peter Robertson, State Coordinator for the Wilderness Society WA.

“The joint venture companies seem to be very much aware of the predicament they have been placed in by Ministers in a hurry to industrialise the Kimberley regardless of better economic and environmental options elsewhere.

“We raised with companies the recent statement from CSLA (CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets) as quoted in the Australian Financial Review that it attached only a 33% probability to Browse proceeding.”