Santos’ drawn-out Barossa project gets final green light

After years of delays, a massive Northern Territory project has finally been approved. Read what happened.

First gas at Santos’ Barossa field is expected to begin within months after the project received final regulatory approval on Tuesday.

The National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) approved Santos’ permit to allow it to attach its processing vessel and pipeline to the gas field.

A Santos spokeswoman confirmed the significant announcement.

“Barossa remains on track for first gas in the third quarter of 2025 and within cost guidance,” she said.

The Barossa field, about 285km north-west of Darwin, consists of six subsea wells with reserves estimated to last 25 years.

Federal Judge Natalie Charlesworth. NCA NewsWire / Morgan Sette

A pipeline that passes about 12km from the Tiwi Islands west coast links Barossa to the Darwin LNG plant.

The 20-year-old Darwin LNG plant was built by United States-based gas producer ConocoPhillips in 2004 and fuelled by gas from the Bayu Undan field.

Santos purchased the facility in 2020 to use it to process gas from the Barossa.

But the project attracted the attention of anti-development protesters who tried to bully Santos and the Commonwealth to pull the estimated $6 billion project.

Supported by the Environmental Defenders Office, greens activists used legal delays to try and stop the project.

Two 11th hour injunctions were lodged in 2022 and 2023 to force the project into the courts, delaying first production by about a year.

But in January 2024 Federal Court judge Natalie Charlesworth turned the tables on fatuous, damaging legal interventions, finding environmentalists lied to traditional owners from the Tiwi Islands and distorted and manipulated their instructions, as they tried to stop the pipeline from being built.

UWA Marine Geoscientist Dr Mick O'Leary had his reputation shredded in court.

She delivered a scathing rebuke of lawyers from the Environmental Defenders Office and an expert witness, Dr Mick O’Leary from University of Western Australia, as she rejected an application to stop Santos building the pipeline.

She found Dr O’Leary had conducted a “cultural mapping” exercise for Tiwi Islands traditional owners who had fought to stop the pipeline, arguing it would destroy their cultural heritage, including the dreaming stories of the Crocodile Man and the Rainbow Serpent, known as Ampiji.

In her Judgement, Justice Charlesworth said Dr O’Leary had explained to Tiwi Islanders at a workshop that he had helped traditional owners from Arnhem Land stop a Woodside development by identifying a kangaroo dreaming story linked to land proposed for the project.

Under cross-examination Dr O’Leary admitted the words he used about the kangaroo dreaming story were not true.

Protesters gather at the front of the Federal Court of Australia on November 15, 2022 in Melbourne, Australia. The Federal Court is hearing an appeal by Santos Ltd., which seeks to restart drilling in the Barossa Gas project, located near the Tiwi Islands off the northern coast of Australia. (Photo by Tamati Smith/Getty Images)

“He said it had nothing to do with stopping Woodside,” Justice Charlesworth wrote in her Judgement.

“He said he now regretted saying the words because they were incorrect.

“That is a startling admission. Not only is it damaging to Dr O’Leary’s credit, it causes me to doubt his understanding of the obligations of an expert to remain impartial.”

Justice Charlesworth said it could only be inferred that Dr O’Leary had made the untrue statement at the beginning of the workshop with the Tiwi Islanders to “coach the attendees … so as to achieve their objective of stopping the pipeline”.

“Dr O’Leary’s admission was freely volunteered, such that he did not lie to the Court,” Justice Charlesworth wrote.

“But he did lie to the Tiwi Islanders, and I find that he did so because he wanted his ‘cultural mapping’ exercise to be used in a way that would stop the pipeline.

“It is conduct far flung from proper scientific method, and falls short of an expert’s obligation to the Court.”

The EDO was ordered to pay $9 million compensation to Santos.