Environmental group Greenpeace, which obtained the leaked draft Oil Pollution Emergency Plan, said it was the first time modelling had shown an oil spill could reach so far.
Greenpeace senior campaigner Nathaniel Pelle said the plan would be "utterly terrifying" for anyone who relied on the Great Australian Bight for their livelihoods.
"We've seen some modelling from potential accidents in the Bight before, what we've never seen… is the potential for oil to reach as far north along the NSW coast as Port Macquarie, including famous beaches like Bondi, like Manly, and like Newcastle," Mr Pelle said.
Equinor, formerly known as Statoil, wants to drill for oil off South Australia's Eyre Peninsula, with similar plans abandoned by BP and Chevron.
The leaked document shows the combined areas of risk under 100 different spills starting at various times over the October–May drilling season.
It shows how far the oil could travel in 60 days after the flow of oil is stopped by drilling a relief well to kill the original well.
In the plan, the drilling would take an estimated 102 days.
Equinor Australia country manager Jone Stangeland confirmed the document was part of an unfinished environment plan that had been distributed to state governments.
He said the map was "based on a extremely unlikely worst-case event, simulated 100 times in different weather conditions and without any response action taken".
Visit our Oil Spill Remediation Services page here.
Source: ABC.net
