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PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Western Australian Environment Minister Albert Jacob has appointed three delegates to assess the proposed Browse liquefied natural gas (LNG) precinct.
The proposed multi-user facility will accommodate the processing and export of natural gas from the offshore Browse basin, which has a proven reserve of 34.6-trillion cubic feet.
The precinct will accommodate a minimum of two gas processing proponents at one location to enable sharing of common-user facilities such as the port, roads, infrastructure corridors and workers’ accommodation. The precinct will be designed to cater for a maximum LNG production capacity of up to 50-million tonnes a year.
Jacob said this week that he had approved the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) formally delegating its powers to assess the proposal under the Environmental Protection Act.
The appointments followed an August 2013 Supreme Court finding that invalidated the EPA’s original assessment report and recommendations.
Supreme Court Justice Wayne Martin ruled in favour of the Wilderness Society of Western Australia when it argued there was a conflict of interest in the EPA process and that the Environmental Minister had erred in granting the project approval, despite the conflicts.
The three newly appointed delegates are Gerard Early, Dr Tom Hatton and newly appointed EPA member Glen McLeod.
“These three delegates had no involvement in the previous Browse assessment and recommendations to government. I am confident the delegates will provide a well-considered and impartial report on the proposal,” Jacob said.
Canberra-based Early was deputy secretary of the Commonwealth Department of Environment, before he retired to run his own consultancy in 2010.
Hatton is group executive of energy at national science agency Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, has more than 25 years of national and international research experience and chairs the Marine Parks and Reserves Authority.
McLeod is a lawyer with 36 years of national and international experience in environmental, planning and government law; the climate change and renewable-energy sectors; ports, probity and procurement. He is a member of the Waste Authority and the Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority and was appointed to the EPA in October 2013.