Updated ,first published
A proposed $850 million gas hub to be run as a subsidiary of Gina Rinehart’s mining empire will not be assessed by Western Australia’s environmental watchdog, clearing the way for development.
Hancock Energy’s Belisima processing plant will be built approximately 350 kilometers north of Perth in the Mid West Province.
Gas from the Lockyer field in the Perth Basin – acquired by Rinehart from Mineral Resources for $1.1 billion in 2024 – will be transported to the new station via a buried pipeline.
The processed gas will then be transported to the Dampier-Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline – Australia’s longest natural gas pipeline.
The construction of the facility will take three years, and then it will operate for up to 30 years. It is expected to produce an amount of 210 terajoules of gas per day.
The project already has approval from the WA Planning Commission, and was submitted to the WA Environment Protection Authority in May.
Its final report stated that the potential environmental impacts of the proposal were “not sufficiently significant or mitigated to warrant a formal assessment”.
That was despite 229 submissions handed to the agency over the five-week consultation period, 227 of which requested further assessment of the plan.
“EPA notes that there are no significant conservation animals recorded in the development envelope,” the agency’s report reads.
“However, Carnaby’s cockatoo habitat (threatened under the EPBC Act and the BC Act) is considered likely to occur within the development envelope.
“The proposal would clear up to 0.2 hectares of low to moderate quality and 2.2 hectares of very low quality black cockatoo forage habitat.
“Potential habitat may exist for the black-striped snake (priority 3) and the southern whiteface (vulnerable under the EPBC Act).
“Potential impacts on terrestrial fauna can be managed appropriately.”
WA Conservation Council chief executive Matt Roberts said the move was “a stark example of how environmental protection laws have been eroded in Western Australia”.
“Of the 229 public submissions made, all but two of them called for the project to be evaluated, yet the EPA ignored the public in favor of passing the billionaire mining giant’s greenhouse gas project,” he said.
“The Belisima project was reinstated in May 2026, with CCWA recognizing significant threats to Carnaby’s Black Cockatoos from native vegetation, groundwater impacts and concerns over carbon dioxide emissions.
“Because the WA government has destroyed our state’s environmental laws and failed to set standards, there is no longer a public mechanism to hold the EPA accountable for such poor decisions.”
A Hancock Energy spokesman said the company was in the “early engineering and design stages” of the project.
“Gas remains vital to powering WA homes and industries, providing much-needed reliable energy that supports jobs and living standards,” they said.
“Further details will be released later.”
Holly Thompson is a journalist for WAtoday, specializing in education and the environment.Connect through X or email address.
