barrow island

Home to our Gorgon and WA Oil operations, Barrow Island remains one of our nation's finest Class A Nature Reserves. It proves that with the right management, industry and the environment can coexist.

Barrow Island is testament to our commitment to providing energy sources while respecting the environment. It is home to the world’s largest non-government quarantine management system which has been recognised locally and globally as “best practice”.

Strict quarantine measures implemented on the island since the 1960s have helped protect Barrow’s natural fauna and biodiversity.

Although rated as one of the most important wildlife refuges in the world, Barrow Island’s ecology remains essentially intact. Today, the Island’s 235 square kilometres of sparsely vegetated and arid landscape is a secure habitat for a variety of plants and animals – many of them endangered or rare on the mainland.

It remains an environmental showcase and world-class example of sustainable development – an environmental sanctuary that we can all be proud of.

Did you know?

On Barrow Island there are almost 400 species of plants, 13 terrestrial native mammal species, more than 110 bird species, 44 terrestrial reptile species, almost 4,000 species of terrestrial invertebrates, and 59 species of subterranean fauna. Our environmental specialists work hard to ensure these species thrive alongside our operations.

WA oil operations

Since the first discovery of oil in 1964 and commencement of production in 1967, the Barrow Island oil field has yielded more than 335 million barrels of oil and delivered more than $1 billion in revenue to the Western Australian community.

The Barrow Island oil field lies beneath Barrow Island, located around 60 kilometres off the northwest coast of Western Australia, about 88 kilometres north of Onslow in the Carnarvon Basin. It is the largest oil field discovered in Western Australia.