Santos fracking approval in NT angers landowner Rallen
Santos has secured final approvals for a controversial fracking project in the Northern Territory, angering one of the country’s biggest landowners.
Santos has secured environmental approval for a controversial fracking project in the Northern Territory despite fierce opposition from one of the country’s biggest landowners.
The NT government has granted permission for Santos to begin operations on Tanumbirini Station in the Beetaloo Basin, around 350km southwest of Katherine.
However the station’s owner, Rallen Australia, has slammed the decision, claiming the oil & gas giant failed to consult with it and other stakeholders prior to submitting its Environmental Management Plan (EMP).
The approval paves the way for initial fracking operations to commence before the end of the year.
Rallen Australia owner Pierre Langenhoven said he was “disappointed” by the decision, and was “considering our options” in response to the approval.
“Through this whole process the biggest disappointment for us as landowners and stakeholders was the lack of consultation from both the governnment and the gas industry,” he said.
“From the government side it’s been very disappointing - there’s been no commitment to try and engage with us.
“And then you get these gas companies that say that because they’ve got commitment from the government, as a landowner you have no rights - they’ve got all the rights.
“Santos has obviously got a working relationship with the NT government and the NT government can’t even pick up the phone to the pastoralists and say hey do you know what’s going on? Have you been consulted? Do you know what’s proposed?”
Rallen paid $70m for Tanumbirini and the nearby Forrest Hill cattle stations in 2020 and is one of the country’s biggest landowners, controlling more than 1.3 million hectares of land across six cattle stations in NT.
The company is backed by Mr Langenhoven’s father-in-law, property baron and industrialist Giovanni Ravazzotti, who’s ranked by Forbes as one of South Africa’s richest people.
Santos and joint venture partner Tamboran Resources believe there is significant shale gas potential at Tanumbirini, and have been drilling and testing two new wells there since May.
After introducing a moratorium on fracking in 2016, a cash-strapped NT government opened up the territory to gas exploration just two years later, lured by the prospect of significant royalties.
Since then there has been a surge in interest in fracking in the Beetaloo Basin after the federal government identified the region as one of its priority areas.
At least 10 companies are already active in the region, including Origin Energy, Santos and Empire Energy.
In its public submission to Santos’ environmental plan, Rallen expressed concerns about the groundwater and air quality impacts of the planned fracking operation.
It also claimed the company had breached its existing land access agreement on the property over several months, including by exceeding the maximum number of vehicles allowed to enter the property, trespassing and failing to rehabilitate land.
“Santos uses Rallen’s pastoral lease as though it owns it and, as it has transpired, flagrantly ignores its obligations to Rallen under the land access agreement,” the submission says.
“There is no positive economic or social benefit to Rallen of Santos operating on Rallen’s pastoral lease.
“In fact, Santos’ activities are interfering with Rallen’s ability to operate its pastoral lease and potentially catastrophically.”
The submission argues a failure to conduct proper stakeholder consultation by Santos represents a contravention of local regulations, and that “may void any determination of the Fracking EMP”.
However NT Environment Minister Eva Lawler disputed those claims.
“Our government has put in place some of, if not the most, robust regulations to protect the environment,” she said.
“Our regulations require interest holders to carry out stakeholder engagement when they are preparing an EMP. I was satisfied that stakeholder engagement was undertaken in accordance with the regulations.”
According to NT laws, environmental approvals can be challenged via a judicial review in the NT Supreme Court.
Mr Langenhoeven said Rallen had also been “kept in the dark” about Santos’ long-term plans for the fracking site.
“One thing they could have done is actually have told me what it would look like when it’s at full production,” he said.
“Is it going to be 10 wells, 190 wells, 1000 wells? How many gas pipelines? How many access roads? Have they got a compressor station to manage the gas and what is that infrastructure going to look like on my property?
“It’s very difficult for a pastoralist to manage their investment into the business by putting in fencing, new water, cattle yards when I don’t know what their business is going to look like on the land in 10, 20, 30 years’ time.”
Rallen is currently in the midst of another dispute with Tamboran's Sweetpea Petroleum over a separate land access agreement in the Beetaloo Basin, with a hearing in the NT Civil and Administrative Tribunal set down for December.
Santos declined to comment.
