Environmental Defenders Office ‘offered to pay Santos’ costs in bid to end Barossa LNG court case’

The Environmental Defenders Office offered to pay Santos’s costs from its failed legal block on the Barossa LNG development, it has emerged.

The Environmental Defenders Office offered to pay Santos’s costs from the failed bid to block a key pillar of the $5.7bn Barossa LNG development, it has emerged.

If its offer had been accepted it could have absolved the legal environmental group of providing communications that it had with possible backers of the legal action.

The offer was an unexpected turn for the EDO which has spent months arguing that it should not be held financially liable for the unsuccessful bid to block the LNG development.

The EDO was the legal counsel for Tiwi Islander Simon Munkara, who had sought an injunction against the gas giant’s plan to develop a 262km pipeline for new LNG wells in waters off the Northern Territory, arguing it would ­irreparably damage cultural associations with the sea.

The court rejected that bid with a scathing rebuke of the conduct of the star witness and the EDO.

As legal counsel, the EDO would not typically be held financially responsible. But Santos is seeking information on who was the financial backer of the bid that was rejected by presiding judge ­Natalie Charlesworth

Santos this year secured a subpoena from Justice Charlesworth which requires the EDO to hand over all communications it had on the legal case. The legal agency has yet to comply with the order.

Tiwi islanders Antonia Burke, Simon Munkara and Pirrawayingi Puruntatameri. Picture: John Feder

The EDO secured a short extension on Tuesday, but only after it attempted to end the case by agreeing to pay Santos’s costs on a party to party agreement, which typically involves the successful party securing about 70 per cent of its legal costs.

Santos rejected that bid and will seek indemnity costs, which will require whoever is determined to be the de facto applicant to pay 100 per cent of its costs – a sum that is likely to be significantly higher. During arguments, lawyers for Santos said its legal fees for the case were about $7m.

Justice Charlesworth has yet to rule on who will be responsible or how costs will be determined.

Justice Charlesworth said the EDO must comply with the subpoena in just over a week. It had sought a court extension a day after the deadline had passed. Justice Charlesworth said it amounted to a failure to comply.

The EDO did not comment when approached by The Australian.

It is not clear whether the EDO could end the legal cost process before the deadline to hand over the correspondence – although legal sources said this was unlikely.

Santos’s aggressive pushback appears to have altered the legal landscape.

Last month, in an unrelated case, the Australian Conservation Foundation dropped its legal bid to block Woodside’s $16.5bn Scarborough LNG project in Western Australia.

In 2022, the ACF asked the Federal Court to order a suspension of work on the project until an assessment was made about its potential effect on the Great Barrier Reef.