Gas giants circle Great Ocean Road as new offshore gas exploration tenders open

The Victorian Government has opened the door to new fossil fuel exploration across 45,000 square kilometres of ocean between Port Campbell and Warrnambool, inviting petroleum companies to apply for a licence in the Otway Basin.

The tenders, released this month, form part of a broader process that also includes a Gippsland site. 

If approved, they would allow companies to conduct surveys and test drilling in waters off the Great Ocean Road, near the Bay of Islands Coastal Protection Reserve.

According to the University of Tasmania, seismic surveying, or seismic blasting, is the method used to search for new oil and gas. 

The process involves firing intense sound signals into the ocean using air guns. 

These signals, which can be detected thousands of kilometres from their source, penetrate deep beneath the seafloor and bounce back to acoustic receivers to reveal geological structures. 

Surveys are conducted around the clock, with blasts every few seconds, and can continue for weeks or months across vast areas of ocean. 

Conservationists argue the practice is anything but harmless.

“Exploring for gas is not a benign activity,” Friends of the Earth Melbourne campaigner Stan Woodhouse told the Brolga.

“It involves destructive survey techniques like seismic blasting, something the communities along the Great Ocean Road have been very vocal in their opposition to.

“If seismic blasting goes ahead people will first notice the survey vessels making laps of the area, then a die-off of southern rock lobsters as the endless blasting damages their ability to coordinate.”

Woodhouse described drilling exploration as “an industrial process, and the signature of industrialisation will be etched into the coastline with pipelines, subsea wells, vessel traffic and drilling rigs”.

Environment Victoria’s Senior Climate and Energy Advisor Dr Kat Lucas-Healey said the licences would “invite more damaging climate pollution into Victoria, at a time when local communities are keen to transition to a renewable powered future”.

Consultation on the tenders is open through Engage Victoria until September 30.

Image credit: Visit Victoria