Key Concerns about BP Oil Exploration in the Great Australian Bight (GAB)

• This area has the greatest diversity of marine life anywhere in the world, including the Great Barrier Reef. Less than 1% of the marine life in this area is protected from oil and gas operations, but up to 90% of the marine life is found nowhere else in the world.
• The area is globally significant for sperm whales, blue whales, beaked whales and southern right whales, as well as great white sharks.
• The seismic testing will take place directly over the Great Australian Bight Marine Park Benthic Protection Zone with the four oil exploration wells to be drilled in or adjacent to this zone. The area is also immediately south of the Marine Mammal Protection Zone well known as the place where southern right whales meet to breed and calve.

Concerns about the seismic testing

• We are concerned about the impact of seismic testing on marine life.
• The testing consists of a series of multiple blasts from air guns of up to 260 decibels, one every ten seconds, continuously for months.
• Our understanding is that 180 decibels can cause discomfort to mammals, and sound of this magnitude travels through water for hundreds of kilometres. (If we think about the response of our domestic animals during fireworks displays, we can appreciate that continuous seismic testing could displace and confuse marine animals.)
• We are concerned about the impacts on commercial species, such as southern bluefin tuna, which feed in the area.
• In the absence of more data on seismic impacts, a precautionary approach is needed.

Concerns about the operator - BP drilling for oil

• The inquiry into the Macondo Deepwater Horizon well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico found that the disaster "can be traced to a series of identifiable mistakes made by BP, Halliburton, and Transocean that reveal such systematic failures in risk management that they place in doubt the safety culture of the entire industry".

Concerns about Australia's regulatory system - Montara Inquiry findings

• The inquiry into Australia's worst oil spill found "widespread and systematic procedural shortcomings", and that the designated authority was "not sufficiently diligent to ensure good field practices".
• The Montara inquiry made recommendations such as establishing a single national regulatory authority and improving environmental response. These have not yet been implemented.
• Conservation SA is concerned that the new regulatory regime is not yet established.

Even deeper water and an extremely remote location

• Conservation SA is concerned that the oil exploration wells proposed in the GAB are in even deeper water than the Deepwater Horizon Incident in the Gulf of Mexico.
• We don't think BP can safely drill in this ultra deepwater location.
• We don't believe that BP can adequately manage an incident if something serious does go wrong in this location.