Climate Activists Occupy Woodside’s Floating Gas Platform

A Greenpeace France activist wears a protective jacket with the NGO's logo in Le Havre, France, on Sept. 18, 2023. Lou Benoist/AFP via Getty Images

Climate activists have scaled a massive floating platform at sea, forcing a gas project to initiate a temporary shutdown.

The Greenpeace campaigners ascended the 70,000-tonne floating production unit at Woodside’s Scarborough gas site off the coast of Western Australia (WA) on the morning of Oct. 17.

Activist Chris Holden said the controversial project—set to produce its first liquid natural gas export by year’s end—would irrevocably harm nature on Scott Reef, a coral atoll about 300 kilometres off the Kimberley coast.

“With warnings like this from the leading global health professionals, our government simply can’t allow fossil fuel projects like Woodside’s Browse project to go ahead,” Holden said while carrying aboard a copy of the 2025 Lancet countdown report.

Once operational, the $18.6 billion (US$12.9 billion) project will provide up to eight million tonnes of LNG for export a year, as well as up to 225 terajoules of gas per day for domestic consumption.

The massive floating production unit arrived at the site 375 kilometres off Karratha in mid-January after being slowly towed from China—a voyage that took two months.

A 2021 report by the Conservation Council of WA and The Australia Institute warned Scarborough would produce an additional 1.6 billion tonnes of emissions, “equivalent to building 15 new coal power stations.”

It said the project was the highest-polluting fossil fuel development proposed in Australia and would increase WA’s total emissions almost 5 percent or 4.4 million tonnes per year.

Woodside has insisted Scarborough has been subject to extensive review and will deliver one of the lowest-carbon LNG sources in Australia.

As of 11:30 a.m. local time, the company said it was still responding to an incident “involving individuals who have gained unlawful access to the Scarborough floating production unit.”

“Our immediate focus is on managing the situation safely and minimising risk to the individuals involved and our workforce,” a spokesperson told AAP.

By Samantha Lock in Sydney