{"id":837211,"date":"2026-08-01T06:12:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T06:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/837211\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T06:12:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T06:12:17","slug":"perdamans-history-in-national-spotlight-amid-push-for-oil-refinery-in-wa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/837211\/","title":{"rendered":"Perdaman’s history in national spotlight amid push for oil refinery in WA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Until this week, the name Perdaman was probably not front of mind for most Australians.<\/p>\n

That changed on Tuesday when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese revealed the privately-owned multinational would lead plans for the country’s first new oil refinery in more than 60 years.<\/p>\n

The $4 million pre-feasibility study is set to examine what it would take to build such a facility along the West Australian coast.<\/p>\n

Indian-owned but headquartered in Perth, Perdaman has interests in fertiliser, pharmaceuticals, property, chemicals, labour hire and renewable energy.<\/p>\n

Oil refinery touted for WA<\/a><\/p>\n

The proposed facility would be built by Perdaman and be the first new large-scale oil refinery built in Australia since the 1960s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Albanese made the announcement at the company’s Project Ceres site, a vast urea plant still under construction on the Burrup Peninsula, or Murujuga, about 1,540 kilometres north of WA’s capital.<\/p>\n

Much like oil, global urea supply chains have been thrown into disarray by the war in the Middle East, sending fertiliser prices soaring<\/a> domestically.<\/p>\n

Due to open next year, the plant is expected to produce 2.3 million tonnes of urea annually, making it one of the world’s largest.<\/p>\n

But for those living in the $6.4 billion flagship project’s shadow, the emergence of Perdaman on the national stage comes with a complicated history.<\/p>\n

Rock art removal<\/p>\n

Murujuga is culturally significant to traditional owners and dotted with tens of thousands of Indigenous rock carvings, including the oldest known depiction of the human face<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ngarluma woman and Murujuga custodian Samantha Walker protested against the Perdaman plant as it broke ground in 2023, citing concern for these ancient petroglyphs.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ngarluma woman Samantha Walker has been a fierce local critic of Perdaman. (ABC Pilbara: Charlie Mclean)<\/p>\n

Ms Walker said Australia should know about the company’s dealings with Indigenous people.<\/p>\n

“This is a company that has and continuously has no respect to engage \u2026 or consider anything that the traditional owners or the people of the country have to say,” she said.<\/p>\n

“If you can’t listen to the people who belong to that landscape, who belong to the country and know the country best.<\/p>\n

“They’re just \u2026 skipping hurdles to get to where they want to be.”<\/p>\n

The “hurdles” Ms Walker described related to the level of consultation between Perdaman and the five Aboriginal language groups responsible for Murujuga: the Yaburara, the Ngarluma, the Mardathoonera, the Wong-Goo-Tt-Oo, and the Yindjibarndi.<\/p>\n

\"ancient<\/p>\n

Murujuga’s rock art is sacred and dates back 50,000 years. (ABC News: Kelsey Reid)<\/p>\n

Three sacred sites were relocated to make way for Project Ceres, while another remains inaccessible at the outskirts of Perdaman’s lay-down area.<\/p>\n

They were moved with state and federal government approval<\/a> after seeking advice from the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation (MAC), which represents the language groups.<\/p>\n

The decision was nevertheless opposed by multiple traditional owners and a letter viewed by the ABC<\/a> suggested MAC had initially refused to give consent before later acquiescing.<\/p>\n

Perdaman was not legally required to seek this permission as the land was already zoned for industrial use.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A map of Perdaman’s Project Series taken from a report by WA’s Environmental Protection Authority in 2021. (Supplied: Environmental Protection Authority)<\/p>\n

MAC chairman and Wong-Goo-Tt-Oo representative Peter Hicks was present for the prime minister’s press conference on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

A lone demonstrator, Mardathoonera woman and Save our Songlines activist Raelene Cooper, was restrained by event security and ultimately issued a notice to move on by WA Police.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Raelene Cooper films out the front of Perdaman during Anthony Albanese’s visit to Karratha. (ABC News: Kimberley Putland)<\/p>\n

In a statement, Perdaman chair Vikas Rambal said the company had undertaken comprehensive consultation “as required under applicable Commonwealth and Western Australian regulatory frameworks”.<\/p>\n

“Throughout the development of Project Ceres, the company has engaged extensively and collaboratively with relevant traditional owner representative organisations,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Rambal declined to answer further questions from the ABC.<\/p>\n

Push for Browse<\/p>\n

The refinery pre-feasibility study pulls the fertiliser giant into another major environmental debate.<\/p>\n

Last week in Federal Court<\/a>, Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt defended granting Perdaman’s neighbour Woodside his approval to keep operating its North West Shelf facilities until 2070.<\/p>\n

He did so while acknowledging the resulting emissions could harm Murujuga’s rock art, contrary to the energy company’s own position.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Vikas Rambal pressed the PM on the ongoing assessment of Woodside’s Browse Basin proposal. (ABC News: Alistair Bates)<\/p>\n

The admission did not stop Mr Rambal from using Tuesday’s announcement to lobby assembled politicians about another gas project touted by Woodside: the Browse Basin development, off the Kimberley coast.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know if the prime minister knows that the Browse project \u2026 has got lots of condensate,” Mr Rambal said.<\/p>\n

“We would request [the] prime minister, premier keep that in mind that all the condensate can go to this refinery project.”<\/p>\n

While Browse has mainly been spruiked as Australia’s largest untapped reserve of natural gas, condensate may also be refined into petrol, diesel, and jet fuel.<\/p>\n

\"industrial<\/p>\n

Murujuga is already home to Woodside’s North West Shelf, Yara’s ammonia plant, and now Perdaman’s urea manufacturer. (ABC News: Kelsey Reid)<\/p>\n

Perdaman signed a 20-year offtake agreement with Woodside in 2023.<\/p>\n

Mr Albanese flatly denied the study of a new WA refinery could apply pressure to Browse’s independent environmental assessment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Processes are processes,” he said.Next steps unclear<\/p>\n

Public records show Perdaman has donated $138,930 to the WA Labor Party since mid-2024, in addition to $11,500 to the WA Liberals and $3,000 to the state’s Nationals Party.<\/p>\n

Questions persist around the location of its prospective refinery and, Browse notwithstanding, where it would source the necessary oil.<\/p>\n

Premier Roger Cook told reporters the focus would be on the state’s Midwest and South West.<\/p>\n

\"Roger<\/p>\n

Roger Cook’s WA Labor has received $138,930 in donations from Perdaman since mid-2024. (ABC News: Kimberley Putland)<\/p>\n

But both he and the prime minister emphasised Perdaman was a safe choice for the job, having already received $475 million in government loans to deliver Project Ceres.<\/p>\n

The company estimates the construction created 2,500 jobs, while 200 ongoing jobs will come from its operations.<\/p>\n

“That’s an investment that will produce a return,” Mr Albanese said.<\/p>\n

Addressing the news cameras, Mr Rambal added Perdaman had the skills to help make Australia self-reliant.<\/p>\n

Analysts expect the refinery will cost about $15 billion<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Until this week, the name Perdaman was probably not front of mind for most Australians. That changed on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":837212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8932,365601,98767,43,132730,5292,44,17174,17173,182539,266715,409549,86,16802,41,39,42,40,45],"class_list":["post-837211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-albanese","tag-burrup-peninsula","tag-fuel-crisis","tag-headlines","tag-karratha","tag-mining-news","tag-news","tag-news-perth","tag-news-wa","tag-oil-refinery","tag-oil-shortage","tag-perdaman","tag-perth-news","tag-pilbara-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=837211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}