TGS Seismic Blasting
Southern Ocean under threat
An enormous 31,600 square km of the Otway Basin, in the Southern Ocean is currently under proposal for seismic blasting, to search for new gas. Multinational companies TGS and their 'silent partner' SLB (formerly Schlumberger) are seeking approval to seismic blast for 400 days, in an area of the Otway Basin about half the size of lutruwita/Tasmania. Seismic blasting will have devastating impacts on our marine life, including the endangered Humpback whale and Southern Right Whale.
TGS' proposal
TGS and their silent partner Schlumberger are seeking a permit that would allow them to seismic blast 3.1 million hectares of the Otway Basin, over a 400 day period. Their project is designed to service multiple clients, and to provide geological information that can be sold to gas exploration companies, worldwide. The project is known as ‘frontier exploration’ because the area of ocean has not been released by the Australian government in the form of titles. This data would be the property of TGS and would be sold to prospective offshore developers. Much of the area in this proposed site was previously 2D-seismic blasted by Schlumberger in 2019/20, and the site also encompasses areas that have been blasted in the last 5–10 years, meaning some parts of our Southern Ocean will be repeatedly impacted by seismic blasting.
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Schlumberger under investigation
Schlumberger is currently under investigation, for breaches to its environmental plan during its last seismic blasting project in the Otway Basin in 2020. These breaches included, blasting within a title (area) that Schlumberger had not been granted a permit for.
Schlumberger have a history of non compliance. In 2019, during a seismic blasting project in the Otway Basin, the SLB flagship the Nordic Explorer blasted over a dump site for WWI and WWII chemical and artillery weapons. It remains unknown, despite inquiries, what impact these blasts had on the canisters of chemicals. In late 2022 the Schlumberger corporation rebranded itself as SLB. It is one of the largest companies, in any industry, on the planet, and one of the most secretive. In April 2015, it was handed the biggest corporate criminal fine in US history, along with three years’ corporate probation, for violations of sanctions in Iran and Sudan.