Small Extinction Rebellion protest targets Santos AGM at Adelaide Oval

They said it was supposed to kick off its “Autumn Rebellion”, but the anti-Santos climate activists at Adelaide Oval Thursday were almost outnumbered by police.

Mounted police were at the scene of a Santos’ Annual General Meeting on Thursday morning, with activists promising a striking protest kicking off a “rebellion”.

Extinction Rebellion South Australia promised a “noisy display” outside the meeting of one of the leading independent oil and gas producers in the Asia-Pacific region, but only a handful of protesters had appear by early afternoon.

The group said the protest would kick off a “wave of actions” to take place through April and May, as part of what they are calling an “Autumn Rebellion”.

A banner says “Santos we are watching you”. Picture: NCA NewsWire / RoyVphotography

However, the police presence was comparable to the number of protesters with only about 15 out late in the morning.

Extinction Rebellion spokesperson Harald Ehmann said up to 30 people had answered the group’s call to gather and protest and their message was clear.

“Santos, get out of town – your gas is killing us, you’re poisoning the atmosphere,” he said.

“Everybody has to get out of fossil fuels – whether it is coal, gas, oil,” he said.

He said it was time to end the air pollution and toxic emissions the burning of fossil fuels creates.

When asked what practical energy producing solutions should be invested in, Mr Ehmann conceded there were problems with renewable alternatives.

“The bottomline is, we’re not experts in what to do,” he said.

A small group of protesters outside Adelaide Oval. Picture: NCA NewsWire / RoyVphotography

“The experts tell us the way to go is head towards renewables because they are carbon neutral, although that’s not exactly so because it takes a lot of energy to make batteries or solar panels, but it’s not our role to offer solutions, our role is to point out the problems,” he said.

However, he said fossil fuels were only part of a large environmental problem, caused by mass development.

“Governments keep on saying more development, more development, more development which is crap, it doesn’t work, we’ve had too much of a good thing, we need to reign it in,” he said.

“We can’t keep running an economy based on eternal growth. You can’t just keep going.

“I’m an ecologist and I understand natural systems. Natural systems don’t keep on growing, that hit a plateau. We’re flying so hard, we are flying through the top and at the end of it it’s going to be one hell of a mess.”

“Dump Santos” was the message out side of the company’s AGM on Thursday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / RoyVphotography

A small group of protesters gathered outside Adelaide Oval. Picture: NCA NewsWire / RoyVphotography

It comes as news was delivered that work on Santos’ $5.4bn Barossa LNG development was now 70 per cent complete, and recent drilling tests had buoyed confidence that the project would make a substantial improvement in the company’s financials.

The Barossa project is set to provide a new source of gas to the existing Darwin liquefied natural gas facility in the Northern Territory.

Santos says natural gas will be extracted from the Barossa field, 300 kilometres offshore of Darwin, and transported via gas pipeline from 2025.

A Federal Court earlier this year rejected a claim the gas giant’s proposed 262km pipeline would cause irreparable damage to First Nations people and their sites.

Drilling was delayed more than a year as Santos was forced to consult with people, while work on the completing pipeline was suspended for weeks as the Federal Court mulled the application launched by the Environmental Defenders Office.