Woodside to run North West Shelf LNG Plant to 2070

Credit: Woodside Energy

Australia conditionally approved on Wednesday a request by Woodside Energy to extend until 2070 the life of its North West Shelf gas plant, following a six-year review dogged by delays, appeals and backlash from green groups.

The facility on the Burrup peninsula in Western Australia is the country's oldest and largest liquefied natural gas plant and a key supplier to Asian markets, but concerns that its emissions could imperil ancient rock art held up a decision.

In a statement, Environment Minister Murray Watt said the approval of project extension was subject to strict conditions, "particularly relating to the impact of air emissions levels."

The impact of emissions on the Murujuga rock art on the Burrup peninsula was considered as part of the government's assessment process, he added.

"I have ensured that adequate protection for the rock art is central to my proposed decision," Watt said.

Woodside has 10 days to respond to the conditions on air quality and cultural heritage management before Watt makes the final decision, he added.

The project's existing approval had been set to expire in 2030.

Australia nominated the Murujuga landscape for World Heritage listing in 2023 but a U.N. advisory body has warned it was at risk from industrial pollution, including emissions from the North West Shelf gas plant.

Estimated to be up to 50,000 years old, the rock art is of cultural and spiritual significance to Indigenous Australians.

Woodside welcomed the government's decision, and said the approval would provide certainty for project operation.

"(We) are reviewing the proposed conditions to understand their application," it said in a statement. "We remain committed to protecting the Murujuga cultural landscape and support its World Heritage nomination."

After the news, Woodside shares jumped 4% in the afternoon, though they had been trading higher through the day.

CLIMATE CONCERNS

Woodside's extension application in 2018 was caught up in state and federal assessment processes stemming from competing concerns over energy security and its environmental impact.

The extension lays the groundwork for Woodside, Australia's top gas producer, to bring online new gas fields to feed the LNG plant, and is expected to generate up to 4.3 billion metric tons of carbon emissions over its lifetime.

Australia's Climate Council said the approval was "a failure of leadership and a polluting stain on (the federal government's) climate record."
The state government of Western Australia cleared the project in December after considering nearly 800 appeals from activists. The federal government twice delayed making a call in the lead-up to general elections in May.

With the North West Shelf's original offshore gas fields in decline, the decades-long extension opens the door for Woodside to develop its long dormant Browse offshore project to supply gas to the Karratha plant.

Woodside's partners in the North West Shelf venture are units of BP, Chevron, Shell, Japan's Mitsui & Co and Mitsubishi Corp and China's CNOOC.

(Reuters - Reporting by Christine Chen and Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Sonali Paul and Clarence Fernandez)