The Wilderness Society released this statement on April 19.
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BP, the company responsible for the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010, plan to start deep sea drilling for oil and gas in waters in the Great Australian Bight off South Australia as early as 2015.
The Wilderness Society Campaigner Kathryn Warhurst said: 鈥淏P wants to drill in waters off South Australia that are far rougher, and far more remote than the Gulf of Mexico. That disaster was in 1.5 kilometres of water, here BP could be drilling in waters far deeper.
鈥淏P鈥檚 plans warrant the highest level of public scrutiny. This is the kind of dangerous exploratory drilling that resulted in BP鈥檚 Gulf of Mexico, Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster. Eighty to ninety per cent of oil well blowouts happen during the exploratory phase.
鈥淏P has already admitted that the best case well blowout spill scenario would result in pollution potentially stretching for 760 kilometres, which is equivalent to the distance from the western end of Kangaroo Island all the way to the Western Australia border. This 330 kilometre-wide plume would pollute everything in its way.
鈥淭here is an appalling lack of transparency here. BP won鈥檛 release the oil spill modelling results for independent analysis and will not commit to making the Environment Plan public. The Wilderness Society has formally requested BP to commit to publicly releasing the Environment Plan and the modelling data, however BP have failed to give any such commitment.
鈥淭he onus is on BP to demonstrate to the South Australian public exactly how they will prevent another disaster, and what plans they have to handle a spill.
鈥淭he South Australian community should be allowed to judge for themselves if BP is serious about safety and the environment. Company policy and platitudes are one thing, we want to know exactly what BP is doing to prevent another disaster and what capacity there is to handle oil spill clean-ups.
鈥淭his secrecy makes you question what BP are trying to hide.鈥