Obtaining Approvals for Oil and Gas Projects in Shallow Water Marine Areas in Western Australia using an Environmental Risk Assessment Framework

The oil and gas industry is of major economic importance to the state of Western Australia. The majority of its activities are offshore, some occurring in shallow marine areas adjacent to sensitive resources such as coral reefs and mangroves. One of the main issues for the oil and gas industry is continued access to marine acreage. Increasing public concern about the environmental protection of the coastal and marine environment has increased the focus on the various users. This has resulted in the development of statutory and administrative processes, more stringent environmental assessment and operating conditions, and greater scrutiny on the issue of access of proposals to some areas. Detailed environmental assessment and management plans are generated for all drilling and development projects. An environmental risk assessment approach utilising computer modelling, habitat mapping, research and monitoring is used to evaluate the risk of a project on adjacent resources and to obtain government approval. The Wonnich appraisal drilling program, which consisted of two wells drilled from the same surface location situated one kilometre away from an area of high conservation value, will be used as a case study of the risk assessment procedure used by one oil and gas company.