Oil and gas risks in the Arafura and Timor Seas are being underplayed, small bushland remnants deserve protection, and solar’s rapid growth still has not displaced fossil fuels.

Oil and gas wells threaten Australia’s northern seas

The Arafura and Timor Seas (ATS) off Australia’s north coast form a semi-enclosed marine area bounded by Australia, Indonesia and East Timor (see map below). The seas link the Pacific and Indian Oceans, contain biodiverse marine and coastal ecosystems including several large Australian Marine Parks, support many rare and threatened species and are important migration routes for birds and sea creatures. The waters and coastlines are important for the cultures and livelihoods of many Indigenous communities.

Unfortunately for nature and the coastal communities, the ATS are rich in oil and gas resources and have been the site of offshore exploration and drilling since the 1950s. Within the Australian waters of the ATS, 758 petroleum wells have been drilled since 1967, of which about a quarter have been developed to production. Australia’s past and enduring commitment to produce and export as much fossil fuel as possible for as long as possible has exposed the environment of the ATS to considerable risk and has increased global climate change.

A recent report has used publicly available risk assessment documentation for three extraction projects to examine how rigorously oil and gas companies and Australian governments have identified and assessed the likely risks during the project approval process. The report focuses on the cumulative risks created by extraction projects – the risks that accumulate over time and/or as a result of other developments in the area. The results are not reassuring.

The assessment reports were challenging for community members to read. There was no standardisation of assessment methods, consultations with stakeholders were limited to Australia (even though there is an international framework for transboundary environmental impact assessments) and the reports were very long and highly technical.

The government relies on the companies to identify and plan their management of the environmental impacts. There is no external reporting of the impacts and even after decades of drilling our understanding of the total impacts remains unknown.

The most severe impacts identified were associated with the local problems caused by oil spills (with no consideration of the wider regional impacts), discharges of hazardous compounds and........

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