Chevron slammed with Gorgon environmental regulations

Chevron Australia’s environmental licence at the Gorgon liquified natural gas (LNG) facility is set to be reviewed every 10 years following a new ruling by the Office of the Appeals Convenor of Western Australia.

Prior to the change, the Gorgon environmental licence would only need to be reviewed every 20 years.

The Conservation Council of WA now seeks to strengthen the licence conditions that concern the regulation of emissions from the premises to air and land.

The council also intends to increase public transparency in licence reporting and reduce the licence duration.

“Taking into account the matters raised by the appellant, as well as the advice of the Appeals Convenor, Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER) and Chevron, the minister considered the conditions applied to the licence are generally appropriate,” Minister for Environment Stephen Dawson outlined in the appeal amendment.

“However, the minister allowed the appeals to the extent that: condition seven is amended to include CO2 (carbon dioxide) and all incidental substances of the reservoir CO2 injection stream as authorised discharges to land only through injection wells at drill centres A, B and C; and the duration of the licence is amended to be 10 years.”

Based on Barrow Island, the Gorgon project includes an LNG facility with three processing units designed to produce 15.6 million tonnes of LNG per year.