Greenpeace activists board Woodside's offshore gas platform, prompting temporary shutdown

A group of Greenpeace campaigners boarded Woodside's 70,000-tonne floating production unit at the Scarborough gas field off the coast of Western Australia on Saturday morning, leading the company to initiate a temporary shutdown of the facility. Dr Chris Holden, holding a copy of the 2025 Lancet countdown report, argued the project would cause irreversible damage to Scott Reef, a coral atoll located about 300 km from the Kimberley coast.

Greenpeace CEO David Ritter described the plan to drill up to 57 wells near the reef as turning the area into an "industrial gas zone" and urged a transition to renewable energy. The $18.6 billion Browse project is slated to deliver up to eight million tonnes of LNG annually and 225 TJ of gas per day for domestic use. Critics, including a 2021 report by the Conservation Council of WA and The Australia Institute, warned the development could add 1.6 billion tonnes of emissions, comparable to building 15 new coal power stations. Woodside maintained the project has undergone extensive review and claimed it will be a low-carbon LNG source, while a company spokesperson said the focus was on safely handling the unlawful access and protecting personnel.