Woodside Energy’s Meg O’Neill declares opposing Karratha Gas Plant extension is effectively supporting coal

Woodside boss Meg O’Neill has declared opponents of the Karratha Gas Plant life extension are effectively pro-coal, following reports the project could become a bargaining chip in a hung Parliament. The company wants environmental approval to run the LNG export plant until 2070, but waited six years for the State Government to give the green light. Commonwealth approvals have been pushed back a month amid debate over the project’s potential impact on Burrup Peninsula rock art. Ms O’Neill on Tuesday said blocking the project — which also supplies local gas for WA — would lead to more coal use on the power grid. State-owned coal power stations in WA are set to be shut by the end of the decade, with gas and renewables as replacements. “The people who are opposing it, they’re just pro-coal,” she told The West Australian. “At the end of the day if the North West Shelf life approval isn’t extended, the outcome will be more coal in WA’s energy mix for longer. “The outcome of not granting the approval is more coal. “All these players claiming they care about the environment, it’s just not true.” Woodside shut one of the five processing trains at Karratha late last year and the company has been talking to other resource owners to potentially backfill the ageing plant. It would also be used to export gas from the planned $30 billion Browse project. The State tinkered with its onshore gas export ban last year to give hopeful developers a five year window to pipe their gas through Karratha, in a bid to boost the economics of new projects. While Woodside says developing new fields will help improve supply to WA, opponents claim the plant would draw gas out of the domestic market. Conservation Council WA acting boss Mia Pepper said the life extension “is a highly significant decision”. The lobby group wants the Federal Environment Minister to expand the environmental assessment to include the potential impact of onshore fracking, which it claims could be used as a future feed gas. None of the Karratha plant’s existing gas comes from fracking but it’s believed CCWA wants to trigger rules that are designed to assess potential secondary impacts of projects. “If approved, Woodside’s Burrup Hub would be the biggest gas plant in the Southern Hemisphere,” she said. “There is rock-hard evidence of potential impacts from its emissions on Murujuga rock art. These impacts are tangible and visible.” Ms O’Neill lashed comments by Premier Roger Cook that a delay of a few weeks would not be significant. “It’s already been six years,” she said. Woodside was considering drilling new wells to pump gas to the facility, Ms O’Neill said, which would be slowed by the approval delay. The project’s impact on rock art — nominated for World Heritage status — has been debated for years and is subject to a State Government-backed monitoring program. Federal officials are seeking the most recent report into the effect on rock art. It’s understood a key element of the reporting has not yet been finalised and the documents are not yet ready to be released. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday knocked back concerns that the approval delay had been in response to crossbench demands. That followed reports that Greens and Teal crossbenchers would look to exert pressure on the major parties to block the project in the event of a hung parliament. He said Federal Minister Tanya Plibersek would respond to the project in “accordance with the law”.