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Federal Labor has not stopped the federal offshore gas regulator, NOPSEMA, from approving Santos’ controversial giant offshore Barossa gas project, under the Timor Sea, on April 22.

Santos plans to sell the liquid natural gas (LNG) on the export market.

The Climate Council said the mega gas project is expected to be “among the most polluting in the world”. The carbon dioxide content of Barossa gas is 18%, making it the most carbon-intensive offshore gas field in production.

It will allow Santos to emit 274 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions over its 25-year life — the equivalent of putting an extra 2 million cars onto the road for 25 years.

The Australian Conservation Foundation said NOPSEMA’s approval fails to properly assess greenhouse gas emissions or explain how Santos plans to comply with the Safeguard Mechanism — the government's policy for reducing emissions at the nation’s largest industrial facilities.

The Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) described the Barossa project as “high risk” and that it will gravely threaten “one of Australia’s most important marine environments”.

AMCS spokesperson Tooni Mahto said on April 22 the project will “industrialise a region of global biodiversity significance 130 kilometres north of the Tiwi Islands, wholly owned by Tiwi Traditional Owners”. The gas pipeline will pass within 7 kilometres of the islands and traverse the Oceanic Shoals Marine Park, a protected area for endangered marine species and critical habitats, Mahto said.

It will impact critical habitat for threatened marine species, including flatback and olive ridley turtles. The Oceanic Shoals Marine Park — known for its vibrant sponge gardens, coral reefs and marine megafauna like whales, dolphins and dugongs — lies directly in the path of the pipeline infrastructure.

“This is not just any patch of ocean; this is a habitat for marine life that cannot be replaced,” Mahto said. “Seismic testing, construction and increased industrial activity put immense pressure on these fragile ecosystems.

“The emissions intensity of this project is so extreme, it’s been described as an ‘emissions factory with an LNG by-product’.

“It’s hard to imagine a clearer contradiction to our national climate goals.”

Santos’ gas project was delayed in 2022 when the Federal Court agreed with the Tiwi Traditional Owners who argued they should have been consulted as relevant persons for the Drilling Environment Plan.

Kirsty Howey, executive director of the Environment Centre Northern Territory (ECNT), said on April 22 that that decision had “far-reaching consequences” not only for Santos’ Barossa project, but for the entire offshore gas industry.

She said this was a "fundamental shift in the approach taken by gas companies to consulting First Nations people and stakeholders more broadly”.

Howey said it is “unfathomable” that Barossa has been approved, when the climate science says there should be no new fossil fuel projects if we are to avoid dangerous global warming.

“This project will still be emitting carbon pollution in 2050, when the world is meant to be at net zero.”

Santos pays no royalties on the gas and minimal, and, in some years, no petroleum resource rent tax.

Howey said NOPSEMA’s approval, in the middle of an election campaign, “just goes to show the failure of climate policy in Australia to ensure the necessary phase out of fossil fuels. If Barossa was a litmus test for the reformed Safeguard Mechanism, that policy has failed.”

Therese Wokai Bourke, senior Tiwi elder from the Malawu clan, said he was “devastated” by the decision. “I can’t understand how the government can ignore what this gas project will do to our planet. It’s like they don’t care at all.”

Pirrawayingi Puruntatameri, Senior Tiwi Traditional Owner from the Munupi clan, said NOPSEMA did not talk with Munupi Traditional Owners directly about this decision. “We as Traditional Owners have always been honest in representing the views of our people with integrity … I am disappointed.”

Indigenous human rights advocate Antonia Burke said the NT and federal governments have for the past 30 years approved seismic testing and drilling exploration wells in the sea floor.

“Tiwi people only found out about Santos’ plans in 2021 when Santos were about to start drilling and laying a pipeline right on Tiwi peoples’ doorstep. Every decision made without Aboriginal people is an act of dispossession and oppression.”

The ECNT said despite requiring Barossa’s reservoir emissions be net zero from the beginning of operations, NOPSEMA has approved Santos’ environment plan without it having demonstrated how it will comply with the offsetting requirements.