Adelaide, May 5, 2006 AEST (ABN Newswire) - The Federal Government's announcement today of new Marine Protected Areas across Australia's south-eastern waters has brought welcome certainty to the nation's $23 billion upstream oil and gas industry, according to the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA).
"We have worked closely over many months with the Government on this matter and the results announced today provide further evidence of the balanced and co-operative approach by the various parties towards protecting Australia's unique marine assets," APPEA Chief Executive, Ms Belinda Robinson, said today.
"For the oil and gas sector, the decision delivers a much-welcomed integrated package of environmental protection and industry certainty," Ms Robinson said.
"Clearly, from our industry's perspective, we can sit comfortably with the protection of these new areas - while at the same time still being able to get on with the job of accessing prospective offshore waters for the oil and gas exploration that is so crucial to Australia's economic future.
"It is most pleasing to see that the Government has maintained its constructive, objectives-based approach throughout this process and resisted calls from some quarters to apply an arbitrary and ultimately meaningless target for protecting marine areas," Ms Robinson said.
Source:
Kevin Skinner
Senior Consultant
FIELD PUBLIC RELATIONS
231 South Road
MILE END SA 5031
Tel: (08) 8234 9555
Fax: (08) 8234 9566
Mob: 0414 822 631
kevin@fieldpr.com.au
Contact
Ms Belinda Robinson
Chief Executive, APPEA
TEL: +61 2 6267 0900
Mobile: +61 41 222 0882
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