Community groups are calling for a ban on fracking across the entire Kimberley amid revelations Texan company Black Mountain has quietly put its “Valhalla” project up for sale.
In a Youtube video posted to oil and gas channel “The Crude Truth”, Black Mountain’s president George Whitman says developing Valhalla is “not something we can do with the resources and team that we have” and the company is now “trying to market our Canning Basin asset (Valhalla)”.
Valhalla is the most advanced fracking project in the region, and is undergoing state and federal environmental assessments. To the frustration of community groups, these assessments will continue even though Black Mountain is attempting to sell the project.
Groups argue that right now is the perfect opportunity for the WA Cook Government to extend the fracking ban, which covers the majority of the state, to include the entire Kimberley.
Fracking is unpopular across WA including in the south - WA Labor’s support for fracking nearly resulted in Fremantle MP Simone McGurk losing her seat at the recent state election, with anti-fracking independent Kate Hulett narrowly missing out on victory following a massive community campaign.
Environs Kimberley Director Martin Pritchard said, “Now is the perfect time for the Cook Government to extend the ban on fracking to include the entire Kimberley and protect this special place from unconventional oil and gas forever.
“Fracking threatens the Kimberley’s unique and endangered species like the greater bilby and freshwater sawfish. It threatens the heritage-listed Martuwarra Fitzroy River and the largest intact tropical savanna in the world, and it threatens to send climate change, which is already causing more intense heat waves and severe flooding, into overdrive.
“At least eight* oil and gas companies have proposed damaging projects in the Kimberley over the years, and all that’s left are stranded assets that the taxpayer has had to pay to clean up. Roger Cook needs to end the uncertainty, end the risk, and ban fracking now. The Kimberley community wants real, sustainable economic opportunities, not empty and toxic promises made by fly-by-night fossil fuel companies.”
Lock the Gate Alliance WA Coordinator Claire McKinnon said, “Black Mountain steamrolled into the Kimberley with a slick PR campaign but is now quietly selling up.
“It’s totally disrespectful to the Kimberley community that Black Mountain shared its decision to sell with an oil and gas Youtube channel long before communicating it to locals.
“Unfortunately that’s the way fracking companies operate - they’re only in it for themselves and when projects don’t add up, they cut and run.”
ENDS
Images, including of Mt Hardman Creek, where a Black Mountain well is proposed within 1 kilometre of, are available here.
Background:
Black Mountain’s decision to sell out of the Kimberley is a major contrast to the slick PR campaign the company launched when it first announced plans to frack the Kimberley nearly five years ago. At the time, Black Mountain boasted of the potential for a trans-continental gas pipeline from the Kimberley to the east coast.
Instead, the company’s time in Australia has been marred with a series of controversies and bizarre announcements. Black Mountain:
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was fined $40,000 for greenwashing by ASIC after claiming it would be a “net zero” operation without any evidence;
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suggested fracked gas from the Kimberley could be used to mine cryptocurrency;
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submitted a federal environmental application littered with inconsistencies;
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eventually delisted from the ASX after struggling to attract interest from Australian investors.
The Valhalla fracking project would involve:
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Drilling 20 frackwells, with horizontal sections three to five km in length each;
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Fracking these wells up to 70 times;
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This would require up to two billion litres of groundwater;
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This water would be mixed with a toxic cocktail of chemicals and sand, and plunged deep underground, fracturing rock to release the gas, in turn creating more than 1.1 billion litres of wastewater which would be stored in open air ponds.
The registered proponent of the ‘Valhalla’ project is Black Mountain subsidiary Bennett Resources Ltd.
Myth: The WA Government cannot ban fracking in the Kimberley because it would put the state at legal risk.
Fact: Independent legal advice shows that just as the government banned fracking down south and on the Dampier Peninsula when there were active tenements, it could extend the ban to include the entire Kimberley.
*Companies that have held tenements in the Kimberley or been in fracking joint ventures in the Kimberley but never established any actual projects include: Origin Energy, Mitsubishi, Hess, Conoco-Phillips, PetroChina, Alcoa, Squadron Energy, and Apache Energy.