A former Santos employee has accused the Australian oil and gas company of covering up the extent of an oil spill he believes killed dolphins off the West Australian coast.
The claims, made by an anonymous whistleblower, were tabled by independent Senator David Pocock in federal parliament on Thursday.
In their statement, the whistleblower said they had been working for Santos in March last year when they witnessed a 25,000 litre spill of condensate – a light form of oil – near the Lowendal Islands, about 300 kilometres off the coast of Karratha.
The oil spill was caused by a tear in a subsea hose used to load an oil tanker moored off Santos' Varanus Island gas processing facility.
The statement said multiple dead dolphins, including a pup, "were found floating in the centre of the spill" while in other areas, "sea snakes writhed in agony".
Using parliamentary privilege at Senate estimates, Mr Pocock also tabled photos and videos showing oil in the water and dolphins floating belly-up in the sea.
The whistleblower said he was "shocked" to learn about Santos' response a month later, when they stated the spill had caused "negligible harm to the environment".
They said employees raised the company's public comments internally, and senior Santos executives knew, or should have known, it was acting "contrary to its internal code of conduct and values and, possibly, the law".
But despite expecting "the situation would be rectified," the company later denied any responsibility for the dolphins' deaths.
The whistleblower said the company had not mobilised environmental assessors until a week after the incident, and therefore could not have known the full scale of the impact.
'A black and white lie'
They described how they were "appalled at the culture and management" demonstrated by Santos at the time, and that a "black and white lie" from the company prompted them to speak up.
"The tragedy of dolphin carcasses amid a kilometre-wide oil slick should be the story. But it's not," they said.
"The story is Santos's subsequent cover-up and total disregard for the values they say they hold dear, values such as accountability and integrity."
The whistleblower said the company's response to the incident had indicated it was an organisation "comfortable with a culture of avoiding accountability".
"It indicates a belief within Santos that they can operate to avoid public interest through misinformation, supported by a cosy relationship with regulators and government," the whistleblower said.
"As an employee who saw very little real effort to be accountable or address the scale of emissions, I question now if their comfort to lie and misrepresent is present in their statements around future climate performance and emissions.
"Santos lied to us all. It is not a coincidence to find dead dolphins in the middle of an oil spill. I call on Santos to show some respect for the public, your employees and the dead bottlenose dolphins that I believe your operation killed."
A WA Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) spokesperson said Santos told the department three dead dolphins were seen close to the oil slick.
DBCA told Santos to retrieve at least one of the carcasses for examination shortly after, but the spokesperson said the company was unable to locate the dolphins.
A second search was conducted the next day, but this was also unsuccessful.
“DBCA continued to liaise with Santos on post-spill wildlife monitoring plans and observations of potential impacts to wildlife,” the spokesperson said.
“Questions relating to the search for carcasses should be directed to Santos.”
WA's Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety said it was "investigating the condensate spill at Santos' Varanus Island operations and will take the appropriate enforcement action".
Dead dolphin 'not negligible'
Senator Pocock tabled the documents during a senate estimates exchange with the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA).
NOPSEMA chief executive Stuart Smith said the spill was outside the agency's jurisdiction as it had occurred in West Australian waters.
He said they were not familiar with the incident but that "we wouldn't consider a dead dolphin negligible environmental harm".
"If any spill [in commonwealth waters] causes the death of a dolphin, then that would be of concern to us and we would act," Mr Smith said.
Santos has been contacted for comment.
