A new proposal for fracking in the Kimberley, ‘Theia-3H exploration well stimulation program’, has been released by the EPA for a seven-day public comment period.
Oil and gas company Theia Energy is proposing to drill and frack a horizontal well next to the environmentally sensitive Edgar Ranges, 150km south east of Broome.
The company previously published an investment brochure with a conceptual plan to pipe oil through the Port of Broome, as well as a potential new port in the vicinity of Gourdon Bay on the southern Kimberley coast.
A gas pipeline to the Pilbara was also on the map.
The company stated that oil production could hit 100,000 barrels a day but it would have to be fracked.
Curtin University researcher Roberto F Aguilera said if proven to be viable, Theia Energy’s proposal had the potential to develop into Australia’s largest oil project.
He said: “It could theoretically be a huge project when you consider the resource of nearly six billion barrels of oil and compare that with the proven oil reserves in Australia that are around two and a half billion.
“But of course, it’s one thing to have abundant resources; it’s another thing to be able to access them.”
A project fact sheet produced by the Perth-based company in 2018 points out that six billion barrels of oil were recoverable out of the estimated tens of billions locked in shale rock on their petroleum lease.
The resource is deemed unconventional and would require hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to access the oil.
Broome-based conservation group Environs Kimberley is calling for an urgent ban on fracking in the region, for which a moratorium was lifted in 2018.
It says if the McGowan Government is to be taken seriously on tackling fossil fuel emissions, a ban is needed before companies invest millions and later seek compensation from the state.
Environs Kimberley director Martin Pritchard said this was the second proposal to frack the Kimberley in the past year, with the Black Mountain Energy proposal currently undergoing EPA assessment.
He continued: “We know that if all oil and gas companies’ plans came to fruition in the Kimberley, we’ll be facing industrialisation on a landscape scale never before seen in Australia.
“The only global equivalent to the fracking planned here is in North America and when you look at places like the Eagle Ford and Permian shale basins, you can’t believe any West Australian government would allow that to happen to the Kimberley.”
Carbon emissions from fracking the Kimberley’s Canning Basin would be double Australia’s commitment under the Paris Agreement, according to a report by Climate Analytics.
Pritchard added: “We don’t think the Premier and his Cabinet have been briefed on the potential scenario of oil and gas fracking in the Kimberley and the billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide and methane that would be released if the region was opened up to gas fracking fields.
“If the McGowan government is going to sanction carbon emissions through fracking the Kimberley that are double the whole of Australia’s carbon budget under the Paris Agreement, then they either don’t believe in the science of climate change or they don’t care.”
