“I wish that we could all stop just for a moment.  Take a deep breath.  Clear our minds of all the millions of artificial images we have seen.  Return to what is real and important.” (Raoul Slater, 2005)

The following are key facts in relation to the current rapid developments in the oil and gas industry in the Browse Basin off Western Australia’s Kimberley Coast:

Two very large Liquefied Natural Gas plants are in the highly advanced stages of planning along the Kimberley Coast in the far north of Western Australia.

The Kimberley Coast and its immediate inland areas incorporate some of the world’s most beautiful and spectacular wilderness scenery.  It is little known due to its inaccessibility and isolation.

Japanese-company INPEX (30%-owned by the Japanese Government) is seeking to establish a 12 million tonne per annum gas plant on the Maret Islands in the Bonaparte Archipelago on the north-Kimberley coast, 400 kilometres north-east of Broome.  Under the INPEX proposal, gas would be piped 200 kilometres by subsea pipeline from its field near Browse Island.

The INPEX project is progressing very rapidly and is a long way ahead of the Woodside project in its development planning.

INPEX appear never to have operated a producing oil or gas field anywhere in the world. They see their gas project as an opportunity to evolve into a producer.  It appears that all other projects in which they have been involved previously has been in a passive capacity.

INPEX’s failure to have operated an oil or gas field has potentially significant implications for the wilderness environment into which they intend to move. Inexperience combined with the sensitive and difficult nature of their surroundings create the potential for catastrophic environmental consequences.

Woodside Energy has short-listed locations on the Dampier Peninsula (north of Broome), the north Kimberley Coast and Scott Reef, 430 kilometres north-west of Broome.  Woodside are considering a plant of capacity 14 million tonnes per anum (“mtpa”).

There is significant additional exploration going on outside of the Woodside and INPEX development proposals.  It is probable that further proposals for gas plants will be tendered in the short to medium term along the Kimberley coast.  Two new gas/ condensate discoveries are emerging: a ConocoPhillips/ Karoon Gas field near Scott Reef and another at the Shell/ Nexus held Echuca Shoals/ Crux fields to the east of the INPEX discovery.