Speaking at this year’s Australian Petroleum Production and Eexploration Association Environment Conference on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Nias urged all companies in the sector to not only support these targets but publicly state that they’re actually achievable. He questioned whether the best options to minimise environmental harm were always taken and cited the Gorgon project as one example.
He also argued that the North West Shelf petroleum province required a more comprehensive environmental plan. Compounding the need for such a plan, added Nias is the expectation that many more wells in this region will be drilled over the next decade.
Based on his observations, the current resources boom in the North West shelf has arguably impacted ecosystems.
“We want to see a minimum footprint in the region and this could be reduced by the industry co-locating and sharing resources,” Nias said.
But if Australia is going to make a big difference to greenhouse gas emissions, it first requires correct policy settings, according to APPEA chief executive Belinda Robinson said, which entailed government working with industry to develop the right operating model.
“The key to our longevity [as an industry] is environmental performance,” Robinson told APPEA Environment Conference delegates.
Also speaking at the conference, Apache Energy managing director Tim Wall told delegates the industry must be flexible enough to adopt options that generated the greatest net benefit.
According to fellow keynote speaker, professor Ian Lowe president of the Australian Conservation Foundation attempts to cut emissions over the next 50 years should minimise exposure to the worst of the speculated environmental impacts.
He said estimates that fossil carbons can remain in the atmosphere for up to 80 years made cleaner energies and more efficient conversion key priorities.
He warned if decision makers continued to favour short-term economic issues over longer term sustainability, between 10-30% of all mammal species could be rendered extinct later this century.
Given the heightened need to reduce greenhouse gases, it’s now up to oil and gas companies to work with their communities to create and maintain a social license to operate, according to Lowe.
“There’s a clear role for gas as a cleaner fuel than oil, and much cleaner than coal or coal fired electricity,” Lowe said.
“It’s now important to review the vision of a sustainable future and industry’s involvement in it.”
