What is “decommissioning”?
Learn about oil and gas clean-up and why fossil fuel corporations try to avoid this legal requirement.
Help protect Australia's oceans from toxic trash
And find out why we took the oil and gas regulator to court.
Australia’s world-famous, biodiverse oceans cannot be a dumping ground for the toxic trash of the oil and gas industry. With your help, we can keep the oceans clean and healthy for people and wildlife.
Above photo: Philip Thurston / Getty Images
Australia’s offshore oil and gas industry is trying to skip out on cleaning up after itself—risking Australia’s spectacular marine environment and unique ocean life with toxic waste.
Santos’ Reindeer field
Earlier this year, powered by you, we went to court to argue that Australia's oil and gas regulator, NOPSEMA, should have checked that Santos has the financial means to pay for the clean up of its Reindeer gas field in Western Australia.
In August, the Federal Court ruled that NOPSEMA was not legally required to be satisfied that Santos had the financial capacity to clean up its aging infrastructure.
“This shows how broken Australia’s oil and gas laws are. It's gobsmacking that oil and gas companies can install massive offshore industrial infrastructure without first proving they have the funds set aside to clean it up.” — Fern Cadman, Wilderness Society Fossil Fuel Industry Campaigner
Renters have to pay bonds before they move in—not when they give notice to leave. Workers set aside funds for retirement during employment—not on the brink of it ending.
Oil and gas companies are afforded the benefit of the doubt, where you and I aren’t.
The ruling highlights a major risk that the marine environment will be left to suffer a toxic legacy—while taxpayers may have to foot the estimated $60 billion offshore clean up bill that’s bearing down on Australia.
What’s next?
With your help, we’ve exposed how Australian oil and gas laws risk leaving taxpayers and the marine environment to pay the price when fossil fuel corporations can’t—or won’t—pay to clean up after themselves.
While this isn’t the outcome that we hoped for, it makes one thing crystal clear: the Albanese Labor government must urgently act to close this glaring gap in Australia’s petroleum laws. Urgent law reform is needed and that is what, with your support, we'll now be laser-focused on seeking from the government.
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Take action to protect oceans!
Australia’s vital marine ecosystems need to be cared for so they can thrive—not filled with toxic garbage that fossil fuel giants are failing to clean up. But it won’t happen unless concerned Australians like you take action now.
How you can help:
- Sign the petition—demand oil and gas companies remove their trash from Australia’s oceans!
- Donate to power our work to keep oceans clean and healthy for people and wildlife. 💙🐳🌊
- Subscribe for breaking news on the court case via email.
FAQs
1. So what’s the problem?
Oil and gas companies have exploited Australia’s resources for 60 years. They’ve made enormous profits, paid minimal tax, damaged the climate and put vast quantities of toxic infrastructure into Australia’s oceans.
In being given the right to exploit Australia’s resources, these corporations made a promise to clean up afterwards. This is called ‘decommissioning’.
Unfortunately, the global pattern of these fossil fuel corporations is not to clean up, but to cut and run.
2. Why is it bad to leave old fossil fuel infrastructure in the ocean?
- The marine environment suffers. Australia's sublime oceans are being put at risk by vast volumes of steel, concrete and other materials, including heavy materials, chemicals and radioactive substances. When this infrastructure is poorly maintained and left in place beyond its use-by date, there is a high risk it will fail. Old and decaying infrastructure can cause leaks, spills and contamination of the ocean.
- Workers are forced to work on decaying and dangerous infrastructure that puts their safety at risk. In recent years there have been several near fatalities of workers on infrastructure that should have been removed years ago.
- Australia misses the huge opportunity to recycle valuable resources and create jobs for offshore oil and gas workers as the extraction side of the offshore oil and gas industry winds up and is replaced by removing and recycling vast quantities of materials.
- The Australian government and Australian taxpayer risks being left to clean up and pay for the oil and gas industry’s mess if it’s not done while these companies are profitable. This is exactly what happened when Woodside sold the Northern Endeavour for a dollar to the Northern Oil and Gas Australia group of companies, which promptly went broke.
3. Why are corporations avoiding the clean-up?
It comes down to money—it’s an expense the companies don’t want to have to cover. After making massive profits from extracting fossil fuels, they want to avoid paying for the clean-up. It is estimated that the oil and gas industry has a $60 billion-and-rising clean up bill coming, and it’s doing everything it can to avoid paying it.
Three companies have already gone broke: leaving the Australian government with the mammoth task of cleaning up the Northern Endeavour platform in the northern waters of Australia.
4. What is the Wilderness Society doing about this?
Right now, we're:
- Calling on the Albanese Labor government to urgently fix Australia’s broken oil and gas laws to ensure oil and gas companies clean up after themselves, and set aside the money to do so.
- Calling for stronger regulation of oil and gas clean up from Australia’s oil and gas regulator to ensure dangerous rigs and pipelines are moved from the ocean.
