Huge steel structure removed from near Ningaloo
A victory for the environment
Woodside is to be congratulated for listening to Friends of the Earth (FoE) and removing the Nganhurra riser turret mooring (RTM) from the ocean off the WA coast.
The company, which makes vast profits from worsening the climate crisis, has safely lifted the 83-metre structure onto a barge and is promising to ship it to an onshore processing centre to be recycled.
Woodside had, at first, wanted to dump the massive steel tube, which is full of toxins, into the sea not far from Ningaloo Reef, but sustained campaigning by FoE and its allies convinced authorities, and Woodside itself, to change its mind.
FoE Offshore Fossil Gas Campaigner Jeff Waters said it was a victory for the environment.
“Woodside should be congratulated for doing the right thing on this occasion,” Jeff Waters said.
“And hopefully it’s an indication of a change in industry culture, where they start to acknowledge their responsibility to remove all of their defunct infrastructure from the ocean when it is no longer needed.”
“But with about 60 oil and methane platforms and thousands of kilometres of pipelines to be pulled out of the ocean in coming years, Australia needs a decommissioning ship and dedicated recycling yards,” Waters said.
“Industry should pay for it all, and the most efficient way to raise the funds is by extending and increasing the existing ‘temporary’ decommissioning levy.”
