Wilderness Society welcomes spotlight on offshore oil and gas decommissioning from Victorian Parliamentary inquiry

Today the Victorian Parliament voted to establish a Parliamentary inquiry into the clean up, or decommissioning, of ageing and retired offshore oil and gas infrastructure.

The scope of the inquiry detailed here, includes the scale of the clean up required in State and Commonwealth waters surrounding Victoria, the effectiveness of existing regulation, opportunities for employment and measures to prevent leaking wells.

Victoria is on the front line of Australia’s decommissioning challenge, with much of Esso/ExxonMobil and Woodside’s Bass Strait oil and gas rigs, pipes and wells long overdue for clean up.

Today’s inquiry comes following a Statement of Concern released last week from six leading environment groups and supported by the Maritime Union of Australia into the failing regulation of offshore oil and gas clean up in Australia.

The Wilderness Society welcomes this inquiry and the important transparency it will bring to the serious risks decaying oil and gas infrastructure pose to the marine environment and workers.

Quotes attributable to Fossil Fuel Industry Campaigner Fern Cadman:

“The oil and gas industry’s failure to clean up their rusty rigs, pipelines and wells threatens the marine environment with spills, leaking methane and toxic chemicals.

“Today’s inquiry will bring much needed attention to the failure of companies like ExxonMobil subsidiary Esso and Woodside to clean up the mess after decades of obscene profits.

“Australia’s oil and gas regulators have been too soft when it comes to making sure offshore oil and gas companies clean up the ocean.

“This inquiry is a critical opportunity to strengthen enforcement of decommissioning to prevent further environmental or worker safety disasters like the two spills and a harrowing evacuation from Esso Bass Strait rigs in just the past 12 months."

For enquiries please contact:

Rhiannon Cunningham, Media Adviser for the Wilderness Society, on 0419 992 760 or [email protected]