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Journal of Australian Energy Producers
RESEARCH ARTICLE (Non peer reviewed)

2010 environmental update

Alastair Sharp-Paul A , Alexandra Hare A , Alice Turnbull A and Tara Halliday A
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Coffey Environments

The APPEA Journal 51(1) 179-192 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ10012
Published: 2011

Abstract

Focusing on Australian projects, this paper provides a summary of the key environmental challenges and developments that arose in 2010 and the industry’s response. The paper considers: developments in legislation and the regulatory environment relating to environmental approvals and management; major project approvals and their environmental requirements and implications; key environmental incidents; and reviews new environmental research and management initiatives that were introduced by the industry. A number of states have introduced changes to the way legislation and regulations are interpreted through changes to guidelines and administrative procedures. There has been a general increase in the standard and level of information that regulators expect proponents to provide and while generally these expectations are documented in guidelines and other documents, in some instances there has been a perceived ‘moving of the goal posts’ without clear guidance on what is expected and how the information will be considered once provided. There has been a number of major projects either commencing or gaining environmental approval in 2010. This includes major projects: in Western Australia, on the North West Shelf and in the Timor Sea/Browse Basin; onshore in Queensland in the coal-seam gas fields and continued exploration and development both onshore and offshore around Australia. One of the most significant approvals in 2010 was the Prelude LNG Project–the first approval in Australia of floating LNG technology. Major environmental incidents in 2009 (Montara in Australia and Macondo in the USA) continued to have repercussions in 2010 with the draft government response to the Report of the Montara Commission of Inquiry released in November. These incidents have put the oil and gas industry under the spotlight and this paper looks at some of the statistics on the frequency and severity of environmental incidents, albeit at a high level. Finally, the industry has continued to implement a number of environmentally related initiatives both in response to government policy and suggestion and independently through groups such as the APPEA environment committee.

Alastair Sharp-Paul has consulted to the mining and oil and gas industries on environmental issues and approvals since 1972. He founded Enesar Consulting in 1974 and is now a senior principal with Coffey Environments. Alastair is the principal author of 25 environmental and social impact assessments for major projects; has led environmental teams in five commissions of inquiry, two panel hearings, and private litigation; and been involved in about 180 projects during his career. His EIS/IAS for the PNG Gas Project received the APIA Award for Environmental Excellence.

alastair_sharp-paul@coffey.com

Alexandra Hare joined Coffey Environments in May 2009 and is a senior consultant in the Brisbane office. She has recently been involved with the EIS process for the development of CSG fields in central Queensland, as well as environmental and social impact baseline and impact assessment for the development of southern Iraq oilfields. Alexandra has six years of experience in private engineering consultancy, energy, and local and regional government in Australia and New Zealand.

alexandra_hare@coffey.com

Alice Turnbull was a senior consultant with Coffey Environments and has a BEng Hons (environmental) and a BSc majoring in ecology and botany. Alice has worked on oil and gas and mining projects; where she scoped and coordinated specialist environmental and social studies and prepared environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) reports and environmental management plans. Alice’s experience includes the Abydos DSO Project environmental approvals, the Mungada and Karara iron ore project ESIA, and numerous offshore seismic surveys. Alice recently left Coffey and now works for ERM.

Biography not available.