Tiwi Island Traditional Owners have written to a Japanese energy company, urging it to pull out of an offshore gas project in the Timor Sea.
The boundary of the Barossa gas field lies about 100 kilometres north of the Tiwi Islands, with a proposed pipeline as close as six kilometres.
The project is being run by oil and gas company Santos, and earlier this month attracted significant investment from Japanese power producer JERA.
Some Tiwi Islanders fear the project has not had sufficient scrutiny, and have written to JERA urging them to re-think their involvement.
“I would say, don’t invest in this, don’t put your money there, because you might regret it one day, what you’ve done,” Jikilaruwu Traditional Owner Marie Munkara wrote in the letter, seen by SBS News.
A proposed pipeline will run as close as six kilometres from the Tiwi Islands. Source: Environment Centre NT
Tiwi Islands resident Antonia Burke said she was hugely disappointed by what she considered to be a lack of consultation.
“There are going to be huge risks if this does go ahead without any consultation with the Tiwi people,” she wrote in the letter.
The Tiwi Islands lie about 80 kilometres north of Darwin, and are home to some 2,400 people.
The letter, sent on 3 December, has been signed by Environment Centre Northern Territory, and corporate accountability advocates Jubilee Australia.
The Japanese Centre for a Sustainable Environment and Society also signed the letter.
“We are also concerned regarding the significant carbon shadow of the Barossa project,” the letter continued.
“The Barossa proposal is fundamentally incompatible with keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees and avoiding the worst impacts of the ongoing climate crisis.”
The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis in March published a report that sounded the alarm about carbon emissions from the Barossa project.
Antonia Burke, pictured fishing off the Tiwi Islands, is concerned about the environmental impact of the Barossa project. Source: Environment Centre NT
"The unprecedented scale of the Barossa emissions relative to the LNG production creates major risks for shareholders," the report found.
Santos has said the $4.7 billion Barossa project will be the “biggest investment in Australia’s oil and gas sector since 2012”.
“As the economy re-emerges from the COVID-19 lockdowns, these job-creating and sustaining projects are critical for Australia, also unlocking new business opportunities and export income for the nation,” Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher said in March.
“The Barossa and Darwin life extension projects are good for the economy and good for local jobs and business opportunities in the Northern Territory.”
Santos and JERA have said they will explore zero emissions projects and carbon capture technologies as part of the Barossa project.
However, Environment Centre Northern Territory co-director Shar Molloy said developing the Barossa gas field was not consistent with commitments to reduce emissions.
“There is no viable plan or approvals to capture the emissions this project would produce,” she said.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been criticised for promoting a “gas-led recovery” from the economic ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Australia recently adopted a plan to reach net zero emissions by 2050, but has come under fire for refusing to adopt more ambitious short-term goals.
A JERA spokesman said they would progress the project with the input of relevant stakeholders, and with a particular focus on the environment.
