David Slama becomes Territory boss at Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association

The NT’s new Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association representative played a key role in trying to secure a major green project. Find out what he hopes to achieve here.

David Slama has been appointed the Northern Territory director for the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA).

It’s a return to Darwin for Mr Slama, who for just over a year was executive director for Major Projects NT in the days before the job was given Commissioner status.

Mr Slama, a former gas-fitter who did an apprenticeship with the South Australian Gas Company in the 1990s, was NT Major Project director between January 2019 and February 2020 before Covid-19 struck.

“I had been here for almost a year and at the end of 2019 my family in the Adelaide Hills were devastated by bushfires,” he said.

“I took a month off work then Covid hit and the NT government closed the borders.”

David Slama is the new NT manager for the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association.

Mr Slama said he encouraged the government to consider the potential of the Sun Cable project, which at that point, had not been elevated to major project status.

“The Government was coming up to the 2020 election and we had heaps of oil and gas projects on the cards, we had plenty of minerals being dug and holes in the ground and I said what about a renewables project,” he said.

“Sun Cable was a project that had ‘do not proceed’ on it.

“I remember pulling it out and upsetting a lot of people in government because I was saying this is critical to the government’s 2050 (net-zero) commitment but it will also allow the Territory to be the world’s first exporter of renewable energy.

“I took (former chief minister Michael Gunner) and (Sun Cable director) David Griffin to Singapore so they better understand Singapore’s energy requirements.

“I’m of the view if you can build a copper cable from Tasmania to London and communicate by code all those years ago, you can build a cable from Darwin to Singapore to do electrons.”

Almost three years since leaving Major Projects, Mr Slama maintained Sun Cable was still worth being pursued by the NT government.

That is now the role of Major Projects Commissioner Jason Schoolmeester while Mr Slama transitions into his new job in petroleums.

APPEA NT represents some of the country’s biggest companies including Santos, Origin Energy, Inpex, ConocoPhillips and ENI. The body has resisted taking the path of other representative groups by basing their NT officer in Darwin rather than in a bigger city like Adelaide or Perth.

Alex Underwood and Nicole Manison at the site of Carpentaria 2 in July.

“APPEA is committed and motivated to increase its voice for the gas industry in the Northern Territory,” he said.

“Beetaloo is the key driver for me taking the NT director job. I see it as the single biggest opportunity to revolutionise, sustain and actually feed all the renewable KPIs that we’ve got.

“It’s important to note if you look at what’s happening in Canberra there’s support for Beetaloo from both sides of parliament and when Origin pulled out that Tamboran stepped in quickly.

“I see gas is a critical ingredient to the Territory’s economic targets, gas and energy security Australia wide and for energy security Australia-wide, from an export perspective and the jobs.

“Clearly the way the gas comes out of the ground is different to how it comes out of the ground in other places, but we’re coming in from 13 or 14 reports including the Pepper Inquiry and all those reports that don’t suggest it’s unsafe or that there are risks that can’t be managed.”

Previous NT APPEA director Cassandra Schmidt left the job in September for a role with the Centre for Decommissioning Australia.