FRACKING AGREEMENT REACHED
Native title holders in the West Kimberley have signed an Indigenous Land Use Agreement with a petroleum exploration company that will allow the use of fracking south-east of Broome.
Theia Energy has been negotiating with the Karajarri people for more than a year, to gain necessary approval for their Great Sandy Desert Project, with an agreement signed off on Friday.
The ABC obtained a conceptual plan of the project last year that showed a network of wells pipelines and even a new port on the Kimberley coast.
But Theia chief operating officer Jop van Hattum said that was not what was being proposed at Friday's meeting, and initially just one well will be drilled and fracked in 2022.
Mr van Hattum said the agreements will provide economic opportunities and control to the native title holders.
"Karajarri people first of all have a lot of control on where well-pads are being established, where pipelines are being established, that their cultural heritage is being protected," Mr van Hattum said.
Karajarri Traditional Lands Association executive officer Martin Bin Rashid said the agreements provided an opportunity for Indigenous people and would protect the environment.
"We see this as an opportunity to take Karajarri forward, we're confident that if fracking is done correctly it is low impact."
"It's an oil project not coal seam gas which is different and is nowhere near the Edgar Ranges". Comalie Manolis
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