Major Gas Threat
Canning Basin
Western Australia
Where is the Canning Basin?
The Canning Basin is located across 640,000 km2 of north-central Western Australia – it’s a massive shale gas basin that could be home to 40,000 fracked gas wells.
The Canning Basin cuts across Aboriginal communities in the Kimberley region.
What companies are in the Canning Basin?
After intense public pressure the WA Government banned fracking across 98% of WA late last year, but left open massive Canning Basin oil and gas fields in the Kimberley. West Australian companies Buru Energy and their Joint Venture partners Origin Energy and Theia Energy as well as Texan frackers Black Mountain Oil and Gas, are now rapidly mobilising in the region to establish the industry before the community can fight back.
All these companies are in the exploration phase, with none having proven viable resource yet, but given the similarities to shale gas fields in the US, and the existing infrastructure in Broome, the threat is active and must be stopped.
How many emissions in the Canning Basin?
It is estimated that fracking the Canning Basin alone could release 13.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent gases (CO2-e) into the atmosphere, Australia’s emissions budget compatible with the Paris Agreement is 5.5 billion tonnes of CO2-e (Climate Analytics)
Local resistance to fracking in the Kimberley:
The late Micklo Corpus, Yawuru Traditional Owner from the Kimberley said, “Origin Energy haven’t been invited onto our country here to frack. Origin Energy, just pack your swag up, forget about the Kimberley and go back home. You’re not invited, you haven’t been invited. We’re asking you to leave now. This can’t happen on our Country.”
