Oil and gas companies have made no secret of their suspicion that activist law firms have used Indigenous groups as stalking horses for a “green agenda” to stop new projects they say will make global warming worse.

But few have been as vocal on the subject as Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher, who told an industry event in November that one of his sector’s greatest challenges was “climate activism and litigation” with “one goal – to stop new oil and gas projects” such as Santos’ Barossa gas project and Woodside Energy’s Scarborough project.