Greenpeace Australia Pacific activists have climbed and documented a toxic, discarded oil tower owned by fossil fuel company Woodside Energy. The activists, who are calling on Woodside to stop polluting Western Australia’s oceans, dropped a banner reading: “Woodside, Don’t Be a Tosser.”

Two climbers scaled Woodside’s Nganhurra Riser Turret Mooring, an 83 metre long, 2452 tonne discarded piece of industrial waste infrastructure that Woodside has left in the ocean near biodiversity hotspots Ningaloo Reef and Exmouth Gulf, dropped the banner and affixed a permanent warning sign to the structure.

Greenpeace activists occupy Woodside’s toxic oil tower off Exmouth as part of Rainbow Warrior Whales Not Woodside tour.
Location: Western Australia

The riser turret mooring reportedly contains toxic fire retardant foam, and was recently found to be slowly sinking after Woodside failed to maintain it. Woodside has been ordered by the offshore oil and gas regulator NOPSEMA to remove the structure but has so far failed to do so.

Greenpeace demands that Woodside urgently remove the structure from Western Australia’s waters and dispose of it safely on land.

Greenpeace Australia Pacific CEO David Ritter said that Woodside’s failure to remove its discarded waste shows that the company can’t be trusted with our oceans.

“Every kid like me who grows up in WA learns that you don’t just chuck your rubbish in the ocean, but that’s basically what Woodside have done here on a massive scale.”

“As a West Australian and an ocean-lover, I’m appalled that Woodside shows such contempt for our oceans. This toxic oil tower should have been disposed of safely years ago, but Woodside has shamefully left its industrial junk to decay in the ocean close to the globally famous treasures of Ningaloo Reef and Exmouth Gulf,” he said.

“Western Australia’s oceans are vital – to our environment, our climate and to Western Australian industries, such as fishing and tourism. Yet Woodside’s operations threaten the health of our oceans and the wildlife and communities that depend upon them.” 

“If Woodside won’t clean up the mess it’s already made in Western Australia’s oceans then it can’t be trusted not to make an even bigger mess drilling for new gas at the Burrup Hub.”

Calls placed by Greenpeace activists to the Western Australian Government’s Littering Hotline, to report Woodside’s industrial rubbish had not been answered at the time of writing.

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Notes to editors

  • The Nganhurra RTM is approximately 19km from the Ningaloo Coast World Heritage Property. The RTM is reported to contain polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). A 2021 report by the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, states that the ‘expected concentration of pentaBDE in the foam is expected to present a material risk to the marine invertebrates, fish, and the marine ecosystems present at or near the site. Risks to human health cannot be ruled out.’
  • Woodside ceased operations at the Nganhurra site over five years ago, but has yet to remove and decommission the RTM, despite repeated requests to do so from the offshore regulator NOPSEMA. The RTM has been losing buoyancy and had sunk more than 1.5 metres as of December 2022.
  • In October 2019, NOPSEMA criticised Woodside for skipping a 10 year inspection and for failing to maintain the structure: ‘Woodside has failed and continues to fail to preserve the condition of the riser turret mooring (RTM) and remove the RTM for onshore disposal.’ The NOPSEMA inspector also warned that if the RTM sank it could ‘cause a significant threat to other marine users including damaging vessels’, which could lead to an oil spill with ‘a widespread and long term impact’ to the environment.