SOUTH AUSTRALIA: BP will not continue with its controversial oil drilling exploration plan in the Great Australian Bight, saying the “competitiveness of this project” is not aligned to the company’s strategic goals.
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The news was announced on Tuesday morning, October 11, following months of environmental and community-led campaigns against the project in South Australia.
Despite those campaigns, BP claims it had support from communities, federal, state and local governments during its preparations for drilling in the Bight.
The decision follows a review of the BP’s upstream strategy in 2016, which included focusing exploration on opportunities likely to create value in the near to medium term, building on BP’s existing upstream positions.
BP’s managing director for exploration and production, Australia, Claire Fitzpatrick said the GAB project would not compete for capital investment with other upstream opportunities in its global portfolio in the foreseeable future.
“We have looked long and hard at our exploration plans for the Great Australian Bight but, in the current external environment, we will only pursue frontier exploration opportunities if they are competitive and aligned to our strategic goals,” Ms Fitzpatrick said.
“After extensive and careful consideration, this has proven not to be the case for our project to explore in the Bight.”
Ms Fitzpatrick denied the decision is a result of the change in BP’s view of the prospectivity of the region, “nor of the ongoing regulatory process run by the independent regulator NOPSEMA”.
“It is an outcome of our strategy and the relative competitiveness of this project in our portfolio,” she said.
BP has informed federal and state governments of the decision, which Ms Fitzpatrick described as an “incredibly difficult” one.
“We acknowledge it will be felt across the South Australia region,” she said.
“We have made significant progress with preparations for drilling in the Bight with the support of communities and federal, state and local governments.
“We acknowledge our commitments and obligations and our priority now is to work with government and community stakeholders to identify alternative ways of honouring these.”
BP’s joint venture partner, Statoil, has also been informed of the decision.
“BP is a long-term, significant investor in Australia, most visibly through our retail network and refinery and also as a participant in the North West Shelf and Browse ventures,” added Ms Fitzpatrick.
“We expect to continue to consider further opportunities to invest and grow our business here.”
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