contents
Moore Issues Industry Warning As Farm Beckons
Retiring West Australian Mines and Petroleum Minister Norman Moore is keen to get stuck into a small farm he bought a while back in Toodyay, playing some golf and travel with his wife Lee, but has a few loose ends to tie up to ensure his successor has a delectable problem on his or her hands.
Moore, 66, will retire in 13 months after 36 years in Parliament including 14 years in Cabinet; two of them as Cabinet Secretary to Charlie Court, who kicked off WA's North West Shelf venture in the 80s that has since powered the State. He is WA's longest-serving Member of Parliament.
While his 50 acre property beckons – a "lovely stone house overlooking the Avon River that deserves some attention" where he wants to grow a garden with fruit and olive trees – Moore has more immediate concerns, namely working with industry to head off a so-far successful campaign by the Greens to "muddy the waters" and hinder the development of the State's vastly prospective shale and tight gas reserves.
Moore's psyche is built on the foundations of mining, the bush and politics, having grown up in Kalgoorlie [where he was born], Bullfinch and Morawa, among other places, as his father worked for Western Mining Corporation. After a 10-year teaching career that climaxed in being principal in a school in Laverton, he wanted to make a difference in a different way, so promptly defeated a sitting member in February 1977 and the rest, as they say, is history.
The conundrum he sees for his successor will be the extremely prospective shale industry. If it gets off the ground, what will he/she do with all that gas? Last year, the US Department of Energy estimated WA has 288 Tcf of gas available from shale gas, which is more than double the 142 Tcf it is believed to have left in conventional offshore reserves. Considering WA only uses about 1 Tcf a year, the potential is mind-boggling. The State can't use it all, so do they convert it to LNG and export it? And how does that compare with offshore costs?
It's a nice problem to have, especially considering the gas shortage the State is currently facing with the impending end of the North West Shelf contracts. "I think it's very, very encouraging for us to know that we've got this potential, additional, massive resource of gas in WA that we can either use domestically or export", Moore said. "The State must also develop its own industries that need gas, so we need to start growing our domestic economy and that would be assisted by a significant increase in supply, which will hopefully bring the price down."
However, for that to happen, he has a dire warning for industry trying to get shale and tight gas off the ground in WA: that the Greens pose a threat not to be sneezed at.
"The biggest problem with oil and gas – particularly tight and shale gas – is green activism which will frighten people to the point where, for example, in Margaret River they're trying to stop a coal mine from going ahead and they don't just talk about coal, they talk about gas – 'we don't want coal or gas'. And I'm thinking 'where do you reckon your power is going to come from?'" he said.
"But the green activists have been able to associate CSG and tight gas in the same nasty package."
He said the environmental concerns dogging the CSG industry in Queensland and NSW being translated into WA gas activities is also an issue that must be dealt with.
"The government can only do so much. Industry must work with us to ensure people understand exactly what they're doing and feel comfortable, which is why I've encouraged them to make public what they're doing; but if they continue to just ignore public opinion, as some companies do, then they won't overcome the fears that are being generated at the moment in lots of people", he said.
Concerns have also migrated across from the US shale industry, largely due to the documentary Gasland, but Moore doesn't necessarily believe there's a problem with CSG or even shale gas in the US. "When you get a campaign to denigrate an industry and they use half-truths and straight-out lies, then it's often hard for industry to defend itself, because the average person out there thinks that the industry is all about just making money and couldn't care less about the environment, and governments just do whatever they can to keep industry happy", he said.
APPEA has thrice had to bring the ABC to task for its 'data journalism' website Coal Seam Gas: By the Numbers and its coverage of US studies linking gas drilling to health problems and their alleged link to the Australian gas industry.
"I think the industry needs to understand that they have got a significant battle on their hands in shale gas, because the Greens have been able to muddy the waters and create this view in the community that CSG and tight gas are the same thing, and they both will destroy aquifers, when in fact there's quite a significant difference between the two", Moore said. "We are working through DMP to make information available on its website about how it all works, and I think the more information people have, the more likely they are to say 'well, this is fair enough'. My experience with West Australians is they're quite happy for us to have mining and oil and gas industries, they would just rather feel we're doing it properly."
Moore is currently unable to release companies' environmental management plans (EMPs) that reveal fracturing fluid content, as frac service providers cite commercial confidentiality, but if industry wants to progress in WA, this reasoning doesn't cut it, either for Moore or, he warns, for the 'average Joe' who just wants to be kept in the loop.
"I'm a bit uncomfortable about that [industry citing commercial confidentiality of frac fluid content]", he said, citing an example where the Greens recently asked him what fluids were being pumped into a well in the mid-west. When Moore refused because his hands were tied, he said the Greens "ran around saying 'the reason they're not telling us is it's because they don't want anyone to know what they're doing and they're destroying the environment and they're trying to keep a secret', when in fact most of the stuff they use is not a problem at all, it has no toxic effect or environmental impact".
"So I've suggested that companies make EMPs publicly available, so people know, and a couple of companies have already done this. I've always had the view in politics that if people know what you're doing and you can justify it publicly then people are generally quite happy. It's only when you look like you're hiding something that they suspect that you really are hiding something", he said.
Following a comprehensive review of WA's petroleum legislation to prepare for the looming shale bonanza, the government is seeking to mandate public disclosure of EMPs, among a raft of other changes to ensure a smooth transition.
Having initiated the single biggest overhaul of the mining industry's occupational health and safety system, legislation has also been passed under Moore's guidance to add a safety levy on the oil and gas industry in State waters and onshore, as the WA Government stands to lose about $15 MM a year with the onset of the new national offshore regulator, NOPSEMA [National Offshore Safety and Environmental Management Authority].
Under the old Joint Authority-Designated Authority [JA-DA] model, the Commonwealth used to give the states transfer fees that companies paid to transfer tenements, which was done as a result of the Offshore Constitutional Settlement. Prior to that, the states recovered stamp duty on transfers. With the Settlement the stamp duties were dismissed, so the states were compensated by being allowed to have the transfer fees.
Now, Moore said, the Commonwealth funds NOPSEMA through a cost recovery scheme. Therefore, "I think it's only appropriate that industry should pay to ensure that they provide a safe working environment", he said. Meanwhile, the people who currently work in WA for the JA on Commonwealth waters will now manage the State waters and all onshore safety and other issues in respect to titles and tenements.
Moore made no secret of his distaste for the need for NOPSEMA, and still has genuine concerns for its effectiveness. While he has proposed a "Big Shed" idea whereby WA State and federal bureaucrats manage approvals together under a Memorandum of Understanding to ensure cross-jurisdictional project cohesion, he's not sure it can become a reality.
"I don't even think NOPSEMA and NOPTA [National Offshore Titles Administration] are geared up properly yet. I'm concerned about this initial period of time when we're 'out of it' and they're 'not in it yet completely'. I don't think the Commonwealth realises the magnitude of the task", he said.
These concerns are already playing out in two wells near Chevron's Wheatstone project in the Carnarvon Basin that the WA Government is concerned may not have been plugged properly by Woodside. The WA Government required remedial work by Woodside, which the company is contesting it doesn't have the jurisdictional authority to enforce after the new Commonwealth regulator structure came into effect.
"I've told Martin [Ferguson, Federal Resources Minister] 'if this is the new policy regime, I'm really very concerned'", Moore said, citing it as an example that shows the Commonwealth is "not that good at managing things on the ground".
The way Moore sees it, the Commonwealth's meddling in the DA's operations stems back to the Howard Federal Government introducing the EPBC [Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation] Act: a "terrible bit of legislation" which he said second-guessed State environmental approvals and caused duplication. He was not surprised when the Productivity Commission recommended the Commonwealth take over everything to avoid duplication, because "that's what the Productivity Commission does as a general rule".
Moore largely went it alone in battling the Commonwealth's efforts to implement this recommendation of the Productivity Commission, because WA has most of the offshore activity.
"This was the annoying part of the debate we had with the Commonwealth – I couldn't get the other states to get vaguely interested in fighting because they didn't have anything offshore", he said.
Through all this – which came at the pointy end of a long career – he has found himself being consumed by politics. He was becoming "one dimensional" and didn't like it.
"You've got to start thinking 'are you going to keep doing the same thing forever until you fall off the perch?' One of the reasons why I think it's time to move is because politics is such an intense business, so time-consuming and all-embracing, that I think I've become a bit one-dimensional in my life. When I read the newspaper I always read the political articles first, and everything else is second, so I need to start broadening my horizons again and start looking at a few other things in life that are important", he said.
His wife Lee, who runs a travel agency "as a hobby", loves travelling, and Moore is happy to accommodate, especially as his three children live in Bangkok, Melbourne and Greece.
At this rate, Toodyay seems years away, but he'll get there eventually ...
