The environment plan for Santos’ controversial Barossa gas project off the coast of the Northern Territory has been given the green light by offshore regulator NOPSEMA, despite opposition from environmental groups.
The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) criticised the regulator for approving Santos’ proposed exploitation of the massive undersea gas field, which contains a higher proportion of CO2 than any other gas field in Australia.
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The development is expected to add more than 270m tonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere over the life of the project.
“This is Australia’s dirtiest gas project and it should never have been given the green light,” ACF climate program manager Gavan McFadzean said.
“Barossa is a massive climate bomb that will produce more climate pollution than usable gas.
“ACF wrote to proponent Santos and regulator NOPSEMA in December, warning the project’s environment plan was not in our view compliant with relevant regulations and again in March this year outlining further concerns about the plan’s assessment of marine impacts.
“Despite our repeated requests, Santos has failed to adequately explain how Barossa will comply with the safeguard mechanism or provide a proper assessment of how the greenhouse gas emissions from Barossa will affect Australia’s environment.
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“Santos’ carbon capture and storage proposal is technically and financially unfeasible, won’t address the problem and does not appear to be progressing.”
NOPESEMA’s decision is the final approval required for the project, which will see Santos extract LNG and pipe it to Darwin.
