Oil and gas companies are on notice following Buru Energy’s latest disastrous drilling project in Western Australia’s Kimberley region.

The company revealed today that its recently drilled oil exploration well, 'Rafael Shallow', near the Manguel Creek system that flows into the National Heritage listed Martuwarra Fitzroy River, has found no oil. 

Buru Energy's Rafael Shallow well site.

The announcement today that the $5 million plus well was dry, as well as no social license for oil and gas, serves as a warning that the Kimberley is too risky to invest in.

Environs Kimberley Acting CEO, Martin Pritchard said: “The time for oil and gas in the Kimberley is over, the community doesn’t want it, it’s too damaging to the environment and climate and the financial risk is not worth it.”

"The Kimberley can be powered through renewable energy, this is the future where there are guaranteed returns on investment.

This dry well serves as a warning to oil and gas companies and investors, don’t even think about bringing this polluting industry here, move to renewables, make a safe bet and don’t ruin the Kimberley."

Manguel Creek – a culturally and ecologically significant creek system with springs that flow into the National Heritage listed Martuwarra Fitzroy River.

Today marks the close of the EPA’s eight week public comment period on Black Mountain Energy’s proposal, via subsidiary Bennett Resources Ltd, to drill and frack 20 exploratory gas wells in the Kimberley (the ‘Valhalla’ project).

If approved by the Cook government, the project would be the first fracking project in the Kimberley since the lifting of the WA fracking moratorium in 2018 and the largest fracking proposal the region has seen.

Environs Kimberley (EK) as well as Seed Mob, Lock the Gate, Conservation Council of WA and the ACF have handed over several thousand public submissions opposing the fracking project, as well as our own detailed submission with accompanying expert reports on water, hydro-geology and greenhouse gas emissions.

EK Acting CEO Martin Pritchard said, “This proposal is the precursor to a catastrophic, landscape–scale onshore oil and gas fracking takeover of the Kimberley's globally–renowned tropical savannah, the largest and most intact in the world.

“Our research into Black Mountain’s fracking proposal is backed by robust, detailed science and it demonstrates the many serious impacts, risks and uncertainties associated with the project – which the company has sought to downplay or ignore in its environmental reports.

“Given what we, and other groups, have documented and submitted we believe the EPA will have to recommend against the proposal.  Then it’s up to the Cook government to make the final decision.

“We have documented significant threats to the National Heritage–listed Martuwarra Fitzroy River; to the uncontaminated groundwater aquifers relied upon by communities and the environment, and the project’s climate impacts – these 20 fracking wells alone would pollute equivalent to 1.6 million cars a year.

“Ultimately, thousands of wells and a huge pipeline would be required if the gas was to be exported through the North West Shelf, as is the current plan.

“Once fracking occurs its impacts are irreversible. When fracking companies become established, the expansion of impacts is inevitable. This has been the experience in multiple comparable fossil gas basins in the US, where Black Mountain is based.

“We're again calling on the Cook government to avert this disaster by banning fracking in the Kimberley as it has done in the Southwest, Peel and Perth Metropolitan areas. There is no good reason to allow fracking in the Kimberley while other parts of the State are protected.”

You can call on the WA Cook government to ban fracking here

Photos:

Submission handover at the EPA office Joondalup - Martin Pritchard

US fracking fields - Ecoflight

Martuwarra Fitzroy River - Martin Pritchard