Climate group 350 Boorloo Perth attacks Woodside, BHP’s Scarborough project

A coalition of organisations opposing the vast Scarborough gas project in Western Australia has demanded an end to Woodside’s “climate lies”.

The group, called 350 Boorloo Perth, has accused Woodside of spearheading “the dirtiest new fossil fuel project currently planned in Australia”, according to campaigner Anthony Collins.

Woodside and BHP on Monday signed off on the controversial $16 billion LNG project off the WA coast, which will cement another 30 years of gas exports from Australia.

Woodside is proposing to develop the Scarborough gas field through offshore facilities connected by a 430km pipeline to its Pluto LNG onshore plant.

Market Forces asset management campaigner Will van de Pol said the Scarborough-Pluto project could release as much carbon as 15 coal power stations running for 30 years.

“If Woodside, BHP, and their investors think the community will stand idly by while they detonate the biggest oil and gas carbon bomb currently proposed in Australia, they are sorely mistaken,” he said.

The investment decision comes just a week after global climate talks in Glasgow calling for nations to do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“All of Australia’s big four banks have loaned to Woodside, BHP, or infrastructure associated with their polluting gas plans, while almost every super fund in the country invests members’ money in these climate-wrecking companies,” Mr van de Pol said.

Woodside chief executive Meg O’Neill told the ABC on Tuesday the gas field had a very low carbon content and the company must think of customers who want to use LNG as a transition fuel.

But Dan Gocher, director of climate and environment at the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility, said the Scarborough gas project was incompatible with keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius.

“Woodside is aggressively pursuing expansion while major trading partners such as Japan and Korea are taking active steps to decrease LNG demand, effectively ignoring the risk of stranded assets,” he said.

“Shareholders should demand Woodside abandon its expansion plans.”

Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia chief executive Chris Rodwell said it was exactly the type of project the state needed as it reopened to the world after the coronavirus pandemic.

“LNG will play a critical role as the world transitions to net zero,” he said.