Understorey: Texan frackers eyeing the Kimberley

Since the oil glut and covid-19 pandemic, falling prices for fossil fuels means oil companies have been in trouble globally: in Texas, some oil and gas companies have been facing particular difficulties, leaving debts and abandoning methane-leaking drills, with 250 more companies expected to file for bankruptcy before the end of the year.   A more optimistic private company from Texas is now eyeing off the Kimberley for its “natural resources” – and it doesn’t mean tens of thousands of years of Aboriginal heritage, or outstanding tropical savannah habitat.  Understorey speaks with Martin Pritchard from Environs Kimberley about Texan company Black Mountain Energy, which is keen to do destructive seismic testing prior to rolling out rigs by 2022, as it moves in to help industrialise the “natural resources” of the Canning Basin and help out with what it calls “nation building.”  Environmental campaigners are keen for the Environment Protection Authority to recognise the risks, but they are now calling on people who care to let Premier Mark McGowan know how they feel about one of the world’s last remaining untouched biospheres.

(Photo: Amy Youngs, Frackfree WA)