Shell Australia chair Zoe Yujnovich told today’s APPEA conference the oil and gas industry needed to be more active in defending its record, as protesters came together outside the Adelaide conference.
Shell Australia chair Zoe Yujnovich told today’s Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association conference the oil and gas industry needed to be more active in defending its record, as protesters came together outside the Adelaide conference.
Ms Yujnovich said despite strong support in the regions, the sector struggled with a negative perception in cities.
“One thing will be clear to everyone in this room – our industry is overwhelmingly welcomed in places where it operates,” she said.
“But this is not the narrative we see in capital-city-centric commentary.
“It was not the narrative at the Batman byelection – and it is not the narrative in Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat feeds.”
Ms Yujnovich said change was needed within the industry.
“So, a question we must answer is: why is there such a gulf in perception from the regional areas where we operate to the commentators and activists of the inner city who rely on our products?,” she said.
“While I firmly believe we will only understand this by listening to people, I will offer two observations.
“The first is that all too often we have been unwilling to be part of the conversation on the issues that really matter to Australians.
“And the second is that, when we have engaged, we have chosen comfortable rather than challenging conversations – but more on the second observation later.”
Ms Yujnovich said it was the sector’s collective silence that had allowed radical views become general acceptance.
“We have been simplistically positioned as not paying our fair share of tax,” she said
“We have been inaccurately described as trampling on the rights of landholders. And deliberately misleading statements have painted us as not making a real contribution to the communities where we operate.
“We must extend the conversation to the lounge rooms, train stations and coffee queues across the country where 60 square centimetres of screen has become the battleground that really matters.
“APPEA will seek every relevant opportunity to make the case for growing the industry’s contribution to our country.
“But why does the outside world look only at greenfield development as an indicator of our industry’s health?.
“We, as an industry, have not properly articulated the enormous amounts of capital required to maintain current production levels.”
Meanwhile, The Wilderness Society and Greenpeace came together with traditional owners and local councils on Tuesday to protest over plans by Norwegian energy company Statoil to drill in the Great Australian Bight by October 2019.
They gathered outside the APPEA conference, urging the company to heed community concerns.
"There is no social licence here, there is no support in Australia," Wilderness Society SA director Peter Owen said.
"The people of South Australia do not want this risky deep-sea drilling happening in our bight.
"We can't put our tourism industry, our fishing industry and our coastal way of life at risk."
