NSW government and mining giant Santos point fingers over Narrabri delays
As power bill surges continue to hit our hip pockets, mining giant Santos and the NSW Government are at loggerheads over the delays in the long awaited $3.5 billion Narrabri gas project.
NSW
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As power bills surge, mining giant Santos and the NSW Government continue to blame each other for the delays in the long awaited $3.5 billion Narrabri gas project.
Santos said exploratory drilling is expected to finally begin next month provided another six management plans are signed off by the NSW Department of Planning.
But the Planning Department advised The Daily Telegraph that it only received the last of those management plans last week. Seven of 13 outstanding plans have now been given the green light.
“I have been frustrated for the last six years,” Narrabri Chamber of Commerce president Russell Stewart said. “This project should be up and running by now.
“I am not sure where people in the city think they are going to get their energy from if we don’t get on with this.”
Narrabri would supply the domestic market and reduce gas prices driven up by producers selling Aussie gas offshore.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has vowed to have a plan in place, possibly capping gas prices, by Christmas.
Santos chief executive Kevin Gallagher told investors this week that demand for gas from Narrabri has “never been greater.
“I can tell you, we are well over 100 per cent subscribed by buyers who want that gas, and they don’t just want it for one year or two years: we’ve got long-term expressions of interest on the table from buyers for that gas for 10 plus years,” he said.
“That’s because those buyers are seeking security as well as affordable energy.”
But even if drills start turning before Christmas, gas is not expected to flow until 2026 at the earliest.
Santos has approval to build an 820km high pressure underground pipeline between Newcastle and Wallumbilla in Queensland.
But work has not commenced because the final route along a 200 metre wide land corridor still needs to be approved with yet more management plans to be vetted by the NSW Department of Planning.
A planning application for an interconnecting pipeline joining the Narrabri Gas Project to the approved pipeline has not even been lodged.
The delays have been dubbed a “national disgrace” by South Australian energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis who said: “Narrabri is sitting there waiting for approval and in the middle of a national energy crisis you’ve got the NSW government deflecting and blaming everyone but themselves.”
NSW Energy Minister and treasurer Matt Kean has previously blamed Santos for not getting on with the project. “This has been through a rigorous assessment process, it‘s now up to Santos to crack on with the job. Get that gas out and get it into homes and businesses in NSW,” he said in June.
Yesterday a spokesman for Mr Kean said: “When the Treasurer was Environment Minister he drove and oversaw the Environmental Protection Authority approval that allowed the Narrabri gas field planning to progress.”
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