Concerned community members have targeted Buru Energy investors at this morning’s annual general meeting, warning them about the threat the company’s gas plans pose to the precious Kimberley.
Several dozen Lock the Gate Alliance members displayed signs and handed flyers to investors as they entered the Celtic Club in West Perth, where the AGM was held. Shareholders were encouraged to direct the Buru Energy board to divest from oil and gas and focus on becoming a leading renewable energy provider instead.
Recently, media reported Buru Energy’s plans to send gas it produces in the Kimberley to export via a yet to be built “floating gas terminal”, to be located off the Kimberley’s pristine coast.
It follows reports revealing Buru Energy cleared more than 15,000 square kilometres of straight lines through Kimberley native vegetation so it could conduct seismic testing for gas, and on top of suggestions by Buru Energy that radioactive wastewater from its earlier fracking operations in the Kimberley could be fed to beef cattle.
Lock the Gate Alliance WA Coordinator Claire McKinnon said, “We wanted to make one hundred percent sure that Buru Energy’s shareholders know how much destruction this company has already inflicted on the Kimberley, and how devastating its plans for gas export will be for the region.
“Kimberley communities are still recovering from devastating flooding, made worse due to man-made climate change. Buru Energy is aiming to open up the very same flood-prone area to climate-wrecking fossil fuel expansion.
“The extraction and burning of gas from the Kimberley would supercharge the climate crisis.
“We must stand up to Buru Energy whose gas plans contradict scientific research showing the world must urgently wean itself off fossil fuels. Companies must not drill any new gasfields if humanity is to stand a chance of mitigating the climate crisis.”
ENDS