Oil and gas giant Chevron is being called on to house workers from its Wheatstone project in Onslow in the wake a report on the mental health impacts of fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) operations.
The company plans to house about 300 FIFO operational workers at an existing construction camp at the Ashburton North Strategic Industrial Area, outside of Onslow, rather than building a new village in town, as originally planned.
Chevron said the decision would reduce the commute time to site and eliminate road safety concerns.
But a WA parliamentary committee, which concluded FIFO workers faced a heightened risk of mental health problems, said it was “not convinced by the safety argument”.
After travelling the 28-kilometre journey from Onslow to the Wheatstone site on a company bus, the committee found the mental health “benefits of living in a community far outweigh considerations such as the possible impact of a 30-minute bus ride to the worksite”.
The committee said being able to live in the Onslow community, on either a permanent residential basis or in a less isolated FIFO camp, would “surely see a significant improvement to workers’ mental health and wellbeing”.
New evidence prompts shire request to Chevron
Ashburton Shire chief executive Neil Hartley said the shire had written to Chevron, asking the company to change its position based on the committee’s findings.
“We have said now that we have this added evidence and data on FIFO camps could they revisit their historic decision,” he said.
“We have asked them to revisit that, in light of this new evidence, and the fact they are an active promoter of not wishing to take on risk if it can be avoided.
“What we are saying is, this is a risk that can be avoided and the camp would be best positioned in the Onslow town site and the residential subdivision where it was originally proposed.”
Mr Hartley said he hoped Chevron would respond positively to the correspondence.
“We are trusting they believe that the health and wellbeing of their workforce, over a period of several decades of operations of that Wheatstone facility, will encourage them to re-think their decision and for them to re-evaluate that 30-minute journey, which they have historically said was a risk they thought they should avoid, in light of the distance and the times and hours employees work,” he said.
“Maybe some of the information that has come out of this study they weren’t aware of in the past.
“[We hope] that information will now result in them re-thinking their position and hopefully concluding that their staff would be better placed, and there would be less risk, if they were located in the town.”
Opportunity for Chevron to correct a bad decision: MP
Pilbara Nationals MP Brendon Grylls said Chevron needed to listen to the committee’s findings.
“I am hoping that Chevron is reading this report and understanding they have made a massive mistake here, that they have reneged on a commitment to the local community,” he said.
“This will deliver bad mental health outcomes for their workforce living in that donga camp 28 kilometres from Onslow.”
Mr Grylls said the company had the opportunity to correct a “bad decision”.
“They probably should just get back to doing what they committed to the community to do, which was to build an operational facility that was strongly interacting with the Onslow community and put this bad decision, to not do what they committed to do, into the history basket,” he said.
“I 100 per cent support the committee and I would hope that Chevron would now realise they’ve made a mistake as well.”
A spokeswoman for Chevron said the company was awaiting the State Government’s formal response to the committee’s findings.
She said Chevron was “committed to continuing its productive relationship with the community of Onslow”.
Source: ABC News