Santos’ $5.8 billion gas project off the Northern Territory coast will go ahead after the Federal Court ruled on Monday that its proposed pipelines would not endanger Indigenous cultural heritage sites.
Justice Natalie Charlesworth shut down claims by a group of Tiwi Islanders that the proposed location of the pipeline – along with the concrete beds it sits on – would damage Sea Country, dreaming tracks, songlines and areas of cultural significance including burial sites and animal habitats.
The decision means that Santos can push ahead with work on the pipeline, which has largely been in limbo since September 2022, pending the outcome of this and another case. Santos was racking up a hire bill of about $US10 million ($15.7 million) a month for a drilling rig while it waited for Monday’s judgment.
The group of 11 elders from the Tiwi Islands, led by Jikilaruwu man Simon Munkara and represented by the Environmental Defender’s Office (EDO), launched the case against Santos last year, after an earlier claim by a traditional owner already scuppered Santos’ first approval for the scheme.
But Justice Charlesworth said she was not satisfied that the Tiwi Islanders had shown their beliefs around the potential Sea Country damage were broadly held by First Nations people in the area, instead saying their evidence was about “personal beliefs”.
Santos had presented conflicting evidence that there were no specific underwater places on the proposed pipeline route, according to beliefs of other Tiwi Islanders consulted by the oil and gas giant’s cultural heritage expert witness.
Map of the Barossa gas project in the Timor Sea.
The case was part of a wave of legal challenges – including multiple specifically related to Santos’ Barossa development – against new gas projects from Indigenous groups asserting they have not been consulted in line with regulations that require environment plans to consider how projects may affect their interests and activities. Woodside Petroleum is fighting a similar case over its $16.5 billion Scarborough gas project in Western Australia.
Energy analysts warned on Monday that LNG production would fall for at least two years between Woodside Energy and Santos, the two largest oil and gas producers on the ASX, and potentially longer if legal challenges and environmental issues continue delaying work on $22 billion in projects.
Mr Munkara’s case was the latest in a string of legal problems Santos faced about the pipeline. In a separate case, NOPSEMA’s original approval of the pipeline and its environment plan was overturned in September 2022 after the Federal Court found the oil giant failed to consult local Indigenous people adequately on the development.
Santos’ attempt to get that judgment overturned failed in December 2022, in a shock decision that created a higher standard for companies to consult traditional landowners for offshore projects.
NOPSEMA ordered Santos to carry out fresh cultural studies before signing off on the new application, and the company hired anthropologist Brendan Corrigan to consult with about 170 Tiwi Islanders. His final report finding that there was no specific underwater cultural heritage places on the pipeline route.
But Mr Munkara disagreed, launching his case against Santos and successfully winning an injunction (which later became a partial injunction) to prevent Santos from starting to lay the pipeline.
Monday’s decision also comes as Resources Minister Madeleine King tried to reduce ambiguity in the rules about consultation that oil and gas projects need to carry out. She opened consultation on the rules last Friday, saying she wanted “clear and unambiguous rules that give communities and stakeholders a real say, and are also workable for industry participants”.
Gas from the Barossa project, in which Korea’s SK E&S and Japan’s JERA have stakes, is to supply the Darwin LNG plant. Shipments to Asia were due to begin in early 2025.
Source: Australian Financial Review
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