Woodside leaves oil rig for taxpayers to clean up; is Exxon next in the Bass Strait?

Thanks Woodside. Taxpayers are on the hook for the $200 million-plus clean-up of an ageing oil production platform moored in the Timor Sea partly because of a loophole in government regulations that are meant to ensure companies are financially sound when they buy oil field titles. Taxpayers have already stumped up more than $50 million to keep the platform safe.

Because this loophole has still not been closed, taxpayers are potentially on the hook for a $4.6 billion clean-up fee for Exxon’s offshore platforms and installations in the Bass Strait.

It’s just a matter of selling your assets to a tiny company that then, suddenly, goes into liquidation. For tax cheat Exxon, which has racked up $33 billion in income in recent years…