Environmental and Safety Regulators failed to report a 20-year-old methane leak at Santos’s Wickham Point facility
Environmental and safety regulators allegedly covered up a methane leak at a major Darwin gas hub for 20 years, explosive documents have revealed. Read more here.
Environmental and safety regulators allegedly covered up a methane leak at a major Darwin gas hub for the past 20 years, with internal documents exposing the ‘national scandal’.
The Environment Centre NT has revealed NT government agencies were aware a liquefied natural gas facility has been leaking methane since 2006, accusing the industry of systemic regulatory failure to the serious health and safety risks.
Through a Freedom of Information, the ECNT has exposed the owners of the Wickham Point gas site detected a LNG tank was releasing between 68 and 184kg of gas per hour in 2019-2020.
ECNT has alleged the faulty tank — just 13km from Darwin — posed a risk to air quality and human health, with the gas leak also presenting a danger of a ‘catastrophic failure’.
According to the documents, the leak was first detected by the site’s previous owners ConocoPhillips in September 2019, with the cause of the leak traced back to a design fault identified in 2006.
The fault was reported to the NT Environment Protection Agency in May 2020, however it is understood the regulator has not required the licence holder to repair the leak.
Just 22 days ConocoPhillips reported the fault to the NTEPA, Santos announced the acquisition of the company’s assets.
In Santos’s own Barossa Production Operations Environment Plan, the company said methane leakage could “pose a risk to personal safety and facility integrity well as the environment and represents a loss of saleable product”.
ECNT executive director Kirsty Howey said based on the reported rate of methane release, this known leak would be considered a “super emitter event by international standards”.
The documents revealed the fault was reported to multiple government agencies, including the NT Environment Protection Agency and NT WorkSafe and federal bodies, the Clean Energy Regulator, National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority, and CSIRO.
WorkSafe NT maintained there was a “low risk” of “catastrophic failure” as the structural integrity of the tank has not been compromised.
A WorkSafe NT statement to ECNT said the leak was first reported in April 2006 which detected “minute quantities” of vapour, and it continued to be considered a “low risk” threat.
It said at the time it was not considered a risk and the tank “remains safe to operate and represents no hazard to personnel or the environment”.
WorkSafe NT said when Santos took over it “had best endeavours to execute a repair of the external tank” liner, however the “numerous options … were not practical or ineffective”.
“The tank was deemed fit for service until 2050 with follow up external roof coating repairs and weather seal repairs to be undertaken.”
On Tuesday, the Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority chair Paul Vogel said the leak was not reported to the public as the methane emissions did “not cause unacceptable environmental and human health impacts”.
“While methane is a flammable gas and can cause asphyxiation at very high concentrations, sampling by Santos has confirmed that fugitive emissions from the tank are significantly below hazardous levels,” Dr Vogel said.
“Fugitive emissions occur at all LNG facilities however, the cause of the emissions from the DLNG tank is unique to this facility.
“The estimated emissions from the LNG tank leak are approximately equivalent to 1 per cent of Santos’s facility’s total annual greenhouse gas emissions and approximately 0.1 per cent of the NT’s emissions.”
The NTEPA said the regulation of greenhouse gases was monitored by the Clean Energy Regulator’s framework, saying reforms to create “duplicative regulation by the NT EPA of the same emissions makes no sense whatsoever”.
However Dr Howey has alleged the known defect was hidden from the public, to prevent it derailing the approvals for the controversial Barossa Gas project.
“This is a national scandal and an unfolding disaster,” Dr Howey said.
“Santos has been caught red-handed putting the environment, climate and the health and safety of the people of Darwin at risk, while regulators have been asleep at the wheel.”
She called for leak monitoring and regulation to be strengthened, and for Santos to be investigated for pollution offences under the Waste Management and Pollution Control Act.
“There is ample evidence that the licence holder has breached not only best practice in relation to leak detection, reporting, and repair, and also its legal requirements as a licence holder,” she said.
Dr Howey said the impact of the leaked methane — which is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide’s greenhouse effect — could not be definitively quantified through the documents as there was no monitoring of the ‘fugitive emissions’.
However she said documents estimated the reported emissions from the Darwin plant could be 26 per cent greater if the “fugitive emissions” were included.
It is understood the facility has been shut down in preparation to backfill for Barossa gas, however Santos has not fixed the leak.
In a statement to the ABC Santos said the tank remained fit and safe for service for the life of the Barossa gas project.
“All regulatory approvals are in place and an ongoing monitoring program is in place,” a Santos spokesperson said.
“Santos reports all its greenhouse gas emissions annually, including from DLNG, under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme (NGERS).”
‘Unacceptable’: Traditional Owners, Industry experts and politicians react to leak
Traditional Owners have slammed the failure of Santos to sit down with them following revelations of the leak.
Larrakia Nation chair Travis Borsi said Santos’ managing director and chief executive’s actions ignored their requests for a meeting in the wake of the leak being revealed, saying their actions “adds insult to injury” and demonstrated their “arrogance”.
“As the Traditional Owners of Darwin, we will not stand silently as our country is degraded in this way,” Mr Borsi said.
“This ongoing methane leak is unacceptable.
“Our land, our health, and our climate deserve better.”
NT Lands, Planning and Environment Minister Joshua Burgoyne said the leak was reported to the previous government and the Environment Protection Authority five years ago, in 2020.
“The EPA continue their important work monitoring air quality and are best placed to work with the proponent to make sure these issues are dealt with and mitigated.”
The Darwin LNG licence is due for renewal by the NTEPA on September 18.
“Ensuring licence conditions relating to air emissions and monitoring are consistent across the industry and adhere to world’s best, or leading edge, practice will provide public confidence that the regulator is maintaining appropriate oversight,” Dr Vogel said.
The exposure of the methane leak has been labelled a “national scandal” by Australia Institute principal advisor Mark Ogge.
Mr Ogge said the failure to take action sooner revealed the regulators were “either grossly incompetent or have been captured by the gas industry, or both”.
“The revelation that all the key Australian and NT government regulators, and the CSIRO knew about a major 20-year methane leak, and failed to act or inform the public is shocking,” he said.
“This reeks of the gas industry capture of Australia’s regulators.
“(They) are meant to protect our health, safety and environment from the activities of gas corporations, not cover-up for them.”
Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis lead gas analyst Josh Runciman said while leaks would always be a risk for major oil, gas and LNG operations, this revealed how crucial it was that a robust methane emission monitoring be put in place.
“Santos’s failure to address the ongoing methane leaks at its Darwin facility may reflect that Santos has not set a specific methane abatement target, which is a departure from industry best practice,” Mr Runciman said.
In the wake of the leak’s exposure, environmental groups have announced snap protests in Darwin and outside the Santos offices in Adelaide on Wednesday morning.
Greens Nightcliff representative Kat McNamara has called on Santos to fix the faulty tank, for the Federal Government to strengthen the three bodies tasked with regulating the sector, the Clean Energy Regulator, NOPSEMA and CSIRO.
“Regulators have known about this for years, but neither Federal Labor nor the Territory CLP government have asked Santos to clean it up,” McNamara said.
Finally they called for the NTEPA to make approval of the Darwin LNG site’s licence conditional on the leak being fixed, and investigate a potential prosecution of Santos.
Independent Johnston representative Justine Davis said it was unacceptable the public were kept in the dark about the potential risks to their health, safety and climate.
“Territorians deserve transparency and accountability, not secrecy and excuses,” Ms Davis said.
She additionally called for the Federal Government to reform methane reporting laws “so leaks cannot be hidden from the public in future”.
On Tuesday federal Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen said he was concerned about the longstanding leak, with a Departmental Expert Review of methane emission management expected to be completed soon.
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Originally published as Environmental and Safety Regulators failed to report a 20-year-old methane leak at Santos’s Wickham Point facility
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