Woodside's Scarborough project faced an offshore disruption after Greenpeace activists boarded its floating production unit, with operations still paused on 18 October, Reuters reported.[4] A company spokesperson said the pause followed unauthorized access on 17 October, when Woodside temporarily halted work before commissioning.[4]
Greenpeace said four activists scaled the unit and displayed banners opposing Woodside's gas development plans.[4] The floating production unit sits around 375 kilometres off Western Australia's northwest coast and forms part of the $12.5 billion Scarborough natural gas project.[4]
The protest concerned Woodside's separate proposed Browse project and its potential effects on Scott Reef, according to Greenpeace.[4] The reef is a foraging area for the endangered pygmy blue whale.[4] Woodside says it expects no physical contact with the reef above a water depth of 75 metres.[4]
Australian Border Force said on 17 October that it was working with federal and state agencies on a response.[4] It had no update for Reuters on 18 October, and Western Australia police did not immediately respond to the news agency's request for comment.[4] The report gave no restart time for the paused work.[4]
Sources: [4] https://gcaptain.com/natural-gas-project-paused-after-greenpeace-protest-off-western-australia Cover: Generic offshore platform photograph by think4photop via Shutterstock, as used by gCaptain. It does not depict the Scarborough protest.