PERTH, Thursday 8 May 2025 – Greenpeace Australia Pacific is challenging Woodside on its troubling track record of harming WA’s oceans at its AGM, and urged shareholders to reject Woodside’s plans to drill for gas near Scott Reef.
Environment groups and concerned community members will stage a protest outside Woodside’s AGM at the Crown Towers in Perth, and Greenpeace will also directly challenge Woodside’s leadership and its gas expansion plans during the AGM proceedings.
Due to participate in Woodside’s AGM as a proxy shareholder, David Ritter, CEO at Greenpeace Australia Pacific said: “For the fourth year, Greenpeace has returned to Woodside’s AGM to expose its shameful environmental track record of harm to marine life, oil and chemical spills, and more. Woodside’s plans pose an unacceptable risk–this is a company that simply can’t be trusted with our oceans.
“Woodside’s planned Browse gas field would entail drilling up to 50 wells as close as 2 kilometres from Scott Reef, home to nesting sea turtles, endangered pygmy blue whales and dusky sea snakes. Its new carbon dumping plans involve repeated seismic blasting over the next 39 years, which can deafen whales, near Scott Reef.
“Woodside wants to turn Scott Reef into an industrial gas zone. We urge Woodside shareholders not to allow our precious oceans, whales, and turtles to face potentially irreversible harm, and call on Woodside to reconsider its plans.
“From leaving its trash in the ocean until Greenpeace pushed it to clean it up to delivering a climate plan that faced unprecedented rejection by shareholders last year, Woodside’s environmental and climate governance under its current leadership is not up to scratch with what shareholders or regulators expect.
“To protect the environment, Greenpeace is urging shareholders to vote down the re-election of board director Ann Pickard, who chairs Woodside’s sustainability committee. Between the multiple environmental failures on her watch and her history of leading Shell’s now-abandoned push to destroy the Arctic for oil, she does not inspire any confidence on sustainability.
“We are also calling on the newly re-elected Albanese government to listen to the millions of Australians who rejected the Coalition’s gas fast-track plans, and voted for nature protection and a safe climate future powered by renewables. Sentiment for climate action was also clear in WA, with a surge in support for Independent candidates championing the shift away from climate-wrecking gas expansion.
“In its second term, the Albanese government has an opportunity to stand up for oceans, marine life and clean energy. It must heed the evidence and reject Woodside’s proposals to extend its North West Shelf gas processing facility, and develop the Browse gas field. Doing so would protect Scott Reef from damage from industrial activity and prevent billions of tonnes of climate-wrecking emissions.
“We are halfway through the critical decade for action on climate change, and in the middle of a climate and biodiversity crisis. Corporations, shareholders, and governments alike must put an end to polluting fossil fuel projects, and accelerate the transition to clean, affordable renewable energy.”
—ENDS—
For more information or to arrange an interview please contact Vai Shah on 0452 290 082 or [email protected].
Photos from the protest and file photos for editorial use will be available here after the protest: Google Drive folder
