Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last October, like many South Australians and my constituents, I was disappointed when BP announced that they were pulling out of their drive to drill wells in the Great Australian Bight. Their 30 per cent partner, Statoil, announced last week that they would be taking over two of those leases. Statoil is the Norwegian government owned oil company. It is the 11th largest in the world, as it so happens, and I welcome their record. They do, of course, have a long and extensive record of drilling in the North Sea, which is recognised as some of the roughest waters in the world, and they will bring great skills to the Great Australian Bight. Chevron, Murphy and Santos all remain in this space as well. I think that people, particularly those of the Eyre Peninsula, are quite excited by the prospects. It is interesting that the decision by Statoil has come in the period just after the finalisation of the report by the Senate committee into drilling in the Great Australian Bight. The chair of that committee, Senator Hanson Young, could not support the committee's findings in any way and remains implacably opposed, but I would like to congratulate Labor Senator Alex Gallacher for actually standing up for South Australians—for standing up for jobs and standing up for the industry that he knows will support our state. (Time expired)