Advent Energy would not comment on the Kimberley wells, as there was planned legal action against the WA government. He also declined to comment on Advent Energy’s financial position.

Labor caught between a promise and a thirst for gas

In a December presentation, Advent Energy pointed investors to a 40 per cent shortfall between east coast gas supply and demand in 10 years’ time, forecast in a 2023 federal government consultation paper for its future gas strategy.

Scott Morrison rejected a two-year extension of PEP11 in February 2022, after secretly swearing himself in as resources minister while prime minister.

However, last year the Federal Court rejected his decision, saying Morrison had shown “implacable opposition” and “bias”, setting the approvals process back to the start.

When then-opposition leader Anthony Albanese campaigned in NSW’s Central Coast in late 2021, he called PEP11 an “absurd proposal”.

“The idea that you’ll have oil and gas drilling just off this coast needs to be rejected,” he said.

“A Labor government that I lead will rule out PEP11. Unequivocal. Full stop. Exclamation mark.”

However, since gaining government, Labor has said little about PEP11, except that it was following the appropriate process.

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Under legislation governing the oil and gas sector in Commonwealth waters, the decision will be made by the joint authority of federal Resources Minister Madeleine King and NSW Natural Resources Minister Courtney Houssos.

The National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator made its recommendation on the extension of PEP11 to the joint authority four months ago, according to its website.

A spokesman for King said the application was under assessment by her department.

Two decades of problems in the Kimberley

Onshore Energy obtained the 2500-square-kilometre exploration permit EP 386 near the NT border in 2011.

For six of the next eight years, it failed to do the minimum exploration work the permit required, according to a 2021 briefing to the WA minister for mines and petroleum obtained through a freedom of information request by environmental group Environs Kimberley.

In 2017, the state regulator told Onshore Energy it would not grant any further extensions to the permit due to this “history of non-compliance”.

A year later, Onshore Energy was directed to decommission and rehabilitate two well sites, estimated to now cost $1.4 million, by 2020.

The WA government has taken responsibility for the wells. In June 2023, it sent a contractor to inspect the wells that found they were not leaking but needed ongoing management.

A spokesman for the regulator said it was reviewing its options regarding Onshore Energy’s non-compliance with its directions.

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