July 2025
The WA state government via the Environmental Protection Authority is nearing the completion of its assessment of the proposal by Texas-based Black Mountain Energy (BME) to drill and frack twenty gas wells in the Kimberley in the Fitzroy River catchment (see map).
If the Valhalla proposal is approved by the Cook government, this would be the first major fracking project in the Kimberley – paving the way for hundreds of frack wells, a 1,000 km pipeline to the Pilbara, and the US-style industrialisation of this globally-renowned region.
WA Environment Minister Matthew Swinbourn will make the final decision in coming months, in consultation with other Ministers.
The Valhalla Proposal
- Initial 20 exploratory frack wells, each well ~2-3 km deep with ~3–5 km horizontal drilling, targeting ‘tight gas’.
- ‘Valhalla’ is larger than any previous exploration fracking under the Barnett Government, and bigger than the current fracking projects in the NT.
- Using 100,000,000 litres (100 ML) of fresh groundwater per well needed; 2 Billion litres total.
- Thousands of tonnes of chemicals mixed with water and sand and pumped down-well at massive pressures to fracture gas-bearing rocks.
- Risk of contaminating aquifers, springs and surface waters, including the iconic and National Heritage-listed Martuwarra Fitzroy River, and it’s tributary Mt Hardman Creek.
- ~1.6 million tonnes of GHG emissions from drilling and fracking alone – this would be just the start, in an area already recently experiencing record flooding and heatwaves.
- The proposal is also being assessed by the Federal Government, who have so far found that threatened species, the National Heritage listed Fitzroy River, and water resources could be significantly impacted.
- Multiple threatened species known or likely in the project area, including Greater bilby and Freshwater sawfish.
