Rick
Morton writing
in The
Saturday Paper,
29 June - 5 July 2024:
Bureau
of Meteorology executives stared down an internal revolt from their
own forecasters to create a “tailored” service for Woodside
Energy’s shipping operation at its multibillion-dollar Scarborough
gas facility on Western Australia’s Burrup Peninsula, insiders say.
The
service was unusual in that the BoM’s internal commercial services
team – which usually handles fee-for-service corporate requests –
rejected the job due to a lack of staff. The commercial project was
then handballed to the agency’s aviation division.
Although
the Bureau of Meteorology has an aviation division forecaster looking
after northern Western Australia, producing aerodrome forecasts for
dozens and dozens of mine sites with fly-in fly-out workforces,
Woodside’s dock in WA, where gas is loaded for transport to mostly
foreign markets, has nothing to do with air travel.
“What
we really hated – and we were really vehemently against it, and
they just basically totally ignored us – was that they’ve also
got us doing a warning service for Woodside petroleum where they load
the ships with gas,” a senior meteorologist tells The Saturday
Paper.
“It
has nothing to do with aviation. And it’s been our argument all
along that that forecaster who’s looking after northern Western
Australia, he’s supposed to drop everything and send these very
specific warnings to Woodside that there’s a wind gust coming in
that might affect your operations.
“And
this is 24 hours a day, basically, over the summer when there are
storms around.”
The
BoM has multiple divisions under its new structure and the
forecasters who produce updates for the general public work under the
banner of National Production. Aviation Weather Services is a
separate division but the organisation draws talent from the same
pool of meteorologists, which it is also responsible for training via
its accelerated one-year graduate program in Melbourne....
Since
Dr Andrew Johnson joined the bureau as chief executive in 2016, the
number of forecaster positions across weather, floods and bushfires
has grown by just five roles.
When
meteorologists in aviation saw the original contract for the Woodside
Energy project, they were aghast. It was worth about $30,000 when the
contract was signed in 2020. It is not clear how much the agency
currently charges the resource giant for the same service.
“It
was pretty insignificant, which just made us angrier, because we
didn’t want to do it in the first place,” a meteorologist says.
“We
didn’t think the bureau should have anything to do with fossil fuel
companies, quite frankly.”
Airlines
pay tens of millions of dollars each year for similar BoM expertise,
although they also employ their own meteorologists in recognition of
the critical role weather plays in the conduct of their business.
Qantas, for example, has a team of six working rolling shifts
covering 24/7 operations. Woodside Energy Group, which recorded a net
after-tax profit of US$1.7 billion last year, employs metocean
engineers crucial for offshore exploration but has no such dedicated
team of meteorologists.
A
spokesperson for the Bureau of Meteorology told The Saturday Paper
the agency “fully and separately recovers the cost of providing
tailored services to its resources sector and aviation customers”
but conceded the workforce demands of its commercial work affect the
whole organisation.
“The
meteorological and other services provided by the Bureau to its fee
for service customers in most cases build upon services created for
the public,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“As
such, they draw on a very wide range of Bureau capability. Without
exception, the cost of elaborating, or tailoring, those services is
fully recovered from the customer receiving the tailored services.”
Under
the Meteorology Act 1955, which governs the BoM, there is a
stipulation that the agency’s functions must be performed “in the
public interest generally” and in particular for the purposes of
the Defence Force, navigation, shipping, aviation and “primary
production, industry, trade and commerce”. Nothing forced the BoM
to bid for the Woodside contract, however.
“They’re
paying pennies to a stretched organisation … it’s a drop in the
ocean for Woodside, but it costs us a great deal more in work hours,
staff morale and eventually quality.”
In
its annual report from last year, the agency crowed about how
Woodside Energy “selected the Bureau to provide a suite of critical
meteorological services following a competitive tender process”.
“This
success is testament to the Bureau’s meteorological skills,
customer support capability and deep industry expertise, honed over
decades of service delivery to the resources sector,” it said.
“This
continues the long-standing partnership between Woodside and the
Bureau, with both organisations gaining significant value from
working closely together.
“Weather
is highly impactful for Woodside. With many operating assets in
exposed locations and vulnerable to hazardous weather, timely and
accurate weather forecasts are key to Woodside’s operational
success and the safety of their staff.”
Similarly,
the BoM was enthusiastic about its partnership with Rio Tinto after
it “started providing Rio Tinto’s Operational Excellence Team
with logistics forecasts, particularly tailored rainfall information,
aimed at enhancing operational efficiency”.
“Facilitated
by the Bureau’s accurate predictions, Rio Tinto reported
significant efficiency improvements following a few rainfall events
in early 2023,” it said.
“A
direct economic impact of approximately $6 million has been
associated with the Bureau’s services, as validated by Rio Tinto,
over 3 distinct weather events confirming the significant value
delivered.”
There
is no doubt obligations are imposed on the Bureau of Meteorology by
its governing legislation, but senior forecasters who have worked at
the agency for decades query whether management needs to be quite so
proactive about hawking the skills of overworked staff to the
resources sector as the climate crisis grows.
“It
would cost Woodside at least half a million dollars a year to stand
up a 24/7 warning service through summer, but probably close to
millions of dollars, and they’re paying pennies to a stretched
organisation for the privilege,” a meteorologist says.
“Either
way, it’s a drop in the ocean for Woodside, but it costs us a great
deal more in work hours, staff morale and eventually quality. It’s
gone downhill so much since I joined. At the time, I believe the
Bureau had the highest retention of staff of any section of the
federal government and we’re at the stage now where there is so
much unhappiness, morale is so low. In aviation, they’re struggling
to hold on to people.”
The
BoM recently withdrew its specialist Sydney Airport Meteorological
Unit (SAMU) from service, despite considerable protest by airlines,
ground support companies and the airport itself, and blended its role
with the broader aviation division.
Management
argued the forecasts could be done by the Brisbane Aviation
Forecasting Centre, which historically has been responsible for
forecasting from the Cocos Islands north-west of WA, across the
northern half of Australia and down the Queensland coast.
Brisbane
now handles half of New South Wales, down the coastline, taking in
Sydney, while the rest of the state is managed by the Melbourne
Aviation Forecasting Centre.
“The
eastern half of NSW contains terrible weather generally, and the
Sydney basin, which is a huge amount of work. So the bureau, in their
wisdom, a few years ago decided to close the Sydney Airport
Meteorological Unit,” a forecaster says.
“And
there was a huge uproar amongst Sydney Airport operations and air
traffic and the airlines, because you had all of these highly
experienced people and Sydney Airport is really difficult to
forecast. They are so angry if anything interrupts their flow. It’s
a huge job.”
Meteorologists
warned management at the bureau Sydney Airport was not like any other
airport. Fog is a huge problem and wind speed and strength is
critical. Closing runways in Sydney causes delays across the national
network and fog had the potential to reroute international flights
that land in the early morning, costing airlines hundreds of
thousands of dollars.
Management
didn’t listen.
“So
the airlines get pretty angry when the forecast goes amiss, and it’s
gone amiss a lot more since SAMU disappeared. And that’s not
blaming the forecasters; they just have too much bloody work to do.”
These
changes have made meteorologists particularly incensed by the fact
the aviation division is now being used to do contract work for the
resources sector. In all, the Bureau of Meteorology provides services
to 32 fossil fuel clients. [my yellow highlighting]
One
of these is Santos, which has operations in the Bayu-Undan gas field,
located within the territorial waters of Timor-Leste, the control of
which has reverted exclusively to Timor-Leste following a maritime
borders treaty decision in late 2017.
Although
the BoM provides forecasting expertise and equipment to Pacific
nations under the auspices of the Department of Foreign Affairs and
Trade, its activities in the gas fields outside Australia are
entirely on behalf of Santos.
“We’re
also doing forecasts for the planes flying around the Timor gas field
between Australia and Dili and a forecast for Dili as well,” says a
bureau meteorologist who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“I’m
not sure who pays for that but, again, we don’t have any equipment
there. It’s a really hard place to forecast, so we’d rather not
be doing that either.”
Coincidentally,
the bureau’s Brisbane office is now located in the Santos building.
“There
is a fine line between providing a critical service for the
Australian economy and becoming cheerleaders for certain parts of
it,” a forecaster says.
“Many
of us see it as a particular issue where the organisation is not
healthy. We are not flourishing at all, actually, and the weather
conditions that lead to our overwork are growing worse every year
because of climate change.”
In
late 2021, when Woodside announced it would pursue the $16.5 billion
investment in the Scarborough gas project off WA’s northern coast,
it estimated the total carbon dioxide emissions from the project
would soar past 800 million tonnes.
However,
a report by the global firm Climate Analytics later found that when
all “associated and interlinked projects” were included in the
equation, these emissions would top 1.37 billion tonnes over three
decades. In all, that is almost three times the total annual
emissions produced by Australia.
“That’s
what we’re breaking our backs for,” a senior meteorologist says.
Full
article can be read at:
https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/environment/2024/06/29/exclusive-bom-staff-redirected-work-fossil-fuel-companies
BACKGROUND
Financial
status of major resource corporations mentioned in the Morton article.
Santos
Limited
is an international petroleum and gas exploration, production &
supply corporation with interests in Australia, Papua New Guinea,
Timor Sea, South-East Asia, the United States & United Kingdom. Having a 2023 full year sales revenue of US$5.889 billion, underlying
net profit after tax of US$1.423 billion and free cash flow of
US$2.128 billion. It will come as no surprise that its last published
Tax Contribution Disclosure (31.12.22) revealed that despite
declaring a net profit in the millions, Santos Limited paid no
corporate tax in that 2022 reporting period courtesy of Australia's
generous corporate taxation policies. [Santos
Limited Annual Report 2023]
Rio
Tinto Group
is a multinational metals & mining corporation based in London UK
& Melbourne Australia, with interests in Australia, USA, Canada,
Iceland, Madagascar, Mongolia, New Zealand & South Africa. Having a 2023 annual consolidated sales revenue of $54.0 billion, profit
after tax of $10.1 billion and free cash flow of $7.7 billion.
Corporate tax paid in Australia amounted to $4.1 billion. [Rio
Tinto Group Annual Report 2023]
Woodside
Energy Group Ltd is
an multinational petroleum exploration and production company with
its head office in Perth along with five other offices in Australia
and, offices in the UK, USA, Canada, Mexico, Africa, the Caribbean &
Asia Pacific. Having a 2023 annual operating revenue of US$13.9
billion, underlying net profit after tax of US$3.3 billion and a free
tax flow of US$560 million. Income tax expense in 2023 US$653
million. [Woodside
Energy Annual Report 2023
