An oil spill in S. Australia may be worst in history

CANBERRA: An oil spill in the Great Australian Bight could spread all the way to the continent’s east and west coasts, documents have revealed.

Planning documents submitted by Equinor, a Norwegian oil company planning to conduct exploratory oil drilling in the iconic bight, revealed a ‘worst case’ spill would result in oil washing up on thousands of kilometers off Australia’s pristine coastline.

Xinhua news agency reported that according to the documents, 10 grammes of oil per square metre could wash up on the coast from Sydney in the east to Albany, about 400km south of Perth in the west, covering the entirety of Victoria and South Australia’s coasts.

However, Equinor Australia said that a spread that severe was ‘extremely unlikely’ even if a spill did occur. Jone Stangeland, manager of Equinor Australia, said the modelling was “based on an extremely unlikely worstcase event, simulated 100 times in different weather conditions and without any response action taken.”

“The images don’t represent an actual scenario, but the combination of 100 different extremely unlikely worst- case scenarios,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Wednesday.

“For Equinor, no oil spills are acceptable, and we will not go ahead until we are convinced we can drill safely.”

Equinor acquired two oil exploration permits for the bight from BP in 2017 and is the only company planning to drill in the region after Chevron abandoned its own plans because of low oil prices.

BP documents, which were obtained and released by Greenpeace earlier in November, revealed that an oil spill in the bight, a large bay off the coast of South Australia that is home to a diverse range of marine life, could be the worst spill in history.

According to those documents, 7.9 million barrels of oil would spill into the ocean before a relief well could be drilled.

The previous worst spill in history, BP’s 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, saw four million barrels discharged into the Gulf of Mexico, only 20 per cent of which was collected.

Nathaniel Pelle, a Greenpeace senior campaigner, said that both BP’s and Equinor’s worstcase modelling were ‘absolutely terrifying’ for those who relied on the bight for their livelihood.

“We’ve seen some modelling from potential accidents in the Bight before, what we’ve never seen ... is the potential for oil to reach as far north along the NSW coast as Port Macquarie, including famous beaches like Bondi, like Manly, and like Newcastle,” he told the ABC yesterday.

“The reason oil companies have to plan for worst- case scenarios is because sometimes they occur.” — Bernama