As global pressure on fossil fuel companies continues to grow and the world turns to renewables, Woodside is now trying to lock in as many fossil fuel projects as possible – before renewable energy kills off demand for their dirty gas.
Woodside is the key driver behind Scarborough, and it’s one of the most polluting companies in Australia.
Woodside can’t build Scarborough if nobody wants to buy their dirty gas. Click here and find out how you can Say NO to the corporate gas buyers and stop Scarborough in its tracks.
Scarborough is just the latest in a long line of blunders that has given Woodside its dodgy reputation. Here’s a quick guide to some of the reasons you can’t trust Woodside.
Not cleaning up after themselves
- They hid a huge oil spill for months and told no one about it.
- They tried to abandon 400 tonnes of plastic on the seafloor – and call it an ‘artificial reef’.
- They tried to get out of paying for the clean up bill for one of their rusted old gas processing facilities, potentially leaving taxpayers with a billion dollar clean up bill.
- Woodside’s own failed maintenance means they tried to sink an old 83 metre long underwater mining mooring, just outside Ningaloo Marine Park.
- In 2019 Woodside forced the WA Government and Environmental Protection Agency to abandon new emission offset rules, allowing unlimited pollution from Woodside’s gas mines.
Destruction of Aboriginal rock art
- They destroyed as many as 5,000 rocks, with a further 1,828 locked away from Aboriginal people for decades.
- Damage caused by Woodside’s facilities could undermine efforts to achieve world heritage listing for the Murujuga Aboriginal rock art.
- Benefited from the compulsory acquisition of native title rights over James Price Point.
The Australian Government spied on East Timor on behalf of Woodside
- The Australian Secret Intelligence Service spied on the East Timorese Government in order to gain advantage in negotiations for oil and gas fields that Woodside went on to exploit.
- Then Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, is reported to have ordered ASIS to spy on East Timor, which benefitted Woodside. Downer later walked into a lucrative role working for Woodside.
Taking it out on workers, while executives roll in cash
- Woodside stood down 900 workers in March 2020 without pay.
- Then they fired another 300 workers in October 2020.
- And then fired another 80 workers in July 2021.
- The moment times get tough, Woodside lay off their workers.
- Introduced an insane 14 weeks on, 4 weeks off roster for workers.
- Meanwhile Woodside’s CEO Meg O’Neill is getting paid $2.2 million a year with a bonus targeted at $4.4 million a year.
Undermining human rights, worker’s rights and gender equality across the world
- SENEGAL: Woodside’s Senegalese operations would have potentially devastating consequences for Senegal’s coastal communities, and especially women, who are already struggling to feed their families due to the pressures of overfishing and climate change.
- MYANMAR: Then Woodside CEO, Peter Coleman suggested the nation’s former civilian leaders ignored the army’s grievances in the lead-up to the military coup.
