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: Australia Gives Green Light For $50 Bn Gorgon Gas Project
08/26/09 01:04 am (EST)

(RTTNews) - Wednesday, the Australian government has given the final approval, subject to conditions, for the $50 billion Gorgon gas project on Barrow Island off the West Australian coast that will export $41 billion in energy to China over 20 years, reports say.

Environment Minister Peter Garrett gave his formal approval after joint venture partner Chevron, which has already invested $150 million on investigating and developing the project, had agreed to meet the 28 environmental conditions he had set for the development of the gas field.

Chevron will be required to come up with a series of plans for approval relating to the protection, management and monitoring of nationally-protected terrestrial fauna. These include the the rare flatback turtle, spectacled hare-wallaby, burrowing bettong and golden bandicoot.

The Federal Government last week announced the deal with PetroChina Co., Asia's largest oil and gas company, to sell 2.25 million tons per year of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the yet-to-be developed Gorgon gas field to China over the next 20 years, in Australia's biggest-ever export deal.

The Government had been criticized for announcing the deal before Garrett had officially signed off on the project. However Garrett denies the announcement had forced him into signing off on the deal saying an extra 28 conditions have been imposed on the project to ensure that Barrow Island, which is a Class A nature reserve, is adequately protected.

He said that his expectation is that the company would be more than willing to meet these conditions He noted that besides the extra conditions, 20 management plans are also in place.

"It is the case that there is agreement on the basis of the conditions that I put forward and I welcome that," Garrett told reporters. "I've made sure that the matters of environmental significance that I'm required to consider under the national environmental legislation have both been identified and conditions applied to ensure that there are no adverse impacts."

West Australian Premier Colin Barnett welcomed Garrett's decision and rejected claims it would damage the environment.

"I don't think any project in Western Australia has had the degree of scrutiny of the Gorgon project," Barnett said.

The Gorgon project is a joint venture of Australian units of global energy companies Chevron, ExxonMobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC. It will allow the expansion of liquefied natural gas (LNG) off West Australia's Pilbara coast and is expected to generate about $300 billion worth of gas contracts besides creating 6,000 jobs. The project will also pump $40 billion worth of revenue into the Federal Government's coffers.

However, concerns had been raised over the project's impact on several species on Barrow Island, dubbed Australia's Ark that has 24 species and sub-species preserved on the island. Many of these are extinct or endangered on mainland Australia.

Dr Andrew Burbidge, who is a consultant for Chevron, says the project should not go ahead because it will threaten the island's biodiversity.

Garrett has signed off on the destruction of a unique environment by approving the Gorgon gas project, Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said. She slammed Garrett's decision saying there was no way Barrow Island's environment could be protected from the development.

"No environmental conditions can protect the environment of this island and it is a nonsense for Minister Garrett to hide behind such conditions," she said. "It is inevitable that the island will be degraded."