Melbourne, Tuesday 3 February 2026 — US multinational oil and gas corporation, ConocoPhillips, has been linked to its second major incident in just six months after an oil rig toppled in Alaska, potentially spilling 4,600 gallons of polluting fuel and oil, and sparking fresh warnings from Greenpeace Australia Pacific that the company cannot be trusted to drill off Victoria's coast.
ConocoPhillips recently completed phase 1 of exploratory drilling offshore in the Otway Basin, an ecologically sensitive area that includes feeding grounds for the endangered Pygmy Blue Whales, and the migration route of the Southern Right Whale.
The incident comes just months after allegations ConocoPhillips and Santos covered up a methane gas leak at an export hub in Darwin, raising serious concerns about safety, transparency, and the company's ability to operate without causing environmental harm. The company's own environmental assessment acknowledges that a spill in the Otway Basin could spread as far as Jervis Bay in NSW and down to the World Heritage-listed west coast of Tasmania.
Despite a mounting record of industry failures, and fierce local opposition, both the Federal and Victorian Governments have opened up new areas off Victoria's coast for gas exploration.
Joe Rafalowicz, Head of Climate and Energy at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: "In less than six months, ConocoPhillips has been linked to a methane gas leak in Darwin, and now a potential oil spill in Alaska. These gas companies keep insisting incidents are unlikely — yet they keep happening, at a huge cost to our communities, wildlife and environment, which, in the Otways, have already been deeply impacted by the recent bushfires.
"Are we really going to keep letting companies with a track record like this drill in the Otway Basin, where their own environmental assessments show a spill could impact fragile ecosystems and endangered marine life? "Our governments need to wake up and stop giving reckless companies a free pass to destroy our environment for profit. Australia already has enough gas. As long as multinationals like ConocoPhillips keep drilling for more, our oceans, wildlife and communities will keep paying the price."
Offshore gas companies have repeatedly put Victoria's oceans at risk, leaving a trail of incidents in their wake:
In 2025, the federal regulator NOPSEMA ordered Kerry Stokes' Seven Group to fix a leaking gas well off Victoria, which it had already agreed to fix two years earlier
In 2025, Woodside shed nearly 200 kilograms of plastic into the ocean near Port Campbell during the decommissioning of its Minerva gas field last year — and continued to knowingly shed plastic for two months before notifying the regulator
In 2024, An ExxonMobil gas pipeline ruptured leaving a visible "sheen" on the ocean's surface
