In mid-July 2008, the West Australian Liberal Party detailed leaked correspondence concerning the maintenance program at the Apache Energy facility at Varanus Island. In the letter from July 2007, the director of petroleum and major hazard facilities, Richard Craddock, said
“The Five-Year Integrity Review report does not objectively demonstrate that the … pipeline complies with the conditions of … licence PL17, the variations under PL17 and the primary technical standard AS2885.”
The letter identified several areas of attention – pipeline integrity, corrosion and safety management.
A spokesman for Energy Minister Fran Logan said the issues raised were about a mainland pipeline however he also said that the Department of Industrial Relations “did raise the issues that were raised with Apache.”
Economic forecasts by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA said the pipeline explosion on Varanus Island had lead to a $6.7 billion reduction in business production and a $2.4 billion negative impact on the general WA economy.
Other reports are emerging over interdepartmental disputes in the area of enforcement of pipelines.
Other reports on the Varanus Island explosion are available in this blog by search “Varanus” in the search field on this page.