Australian gas, oil firm wins legal battle against Indigenous people

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) - Amid opposition from Indigenous people, a giant gas operator in Australia on Monday won a court challenge and is set to resume work on an underwater pipeline.

Oil and gas company Santos was granted permission for its Barossa gas project in the Timor Sea, north of Darwin in the Northern Territory of the country.

A group of Indigenous people from Tiwi Islands, Northern Territory, had brought the case against Santos.

“The court received both written and oral evidence from 23 First Nations witnesses from the Tiwi Islands, in roughly even numbers from both sides of the dispute, as well as 26 expert reports,” ABC News reported.

The $3.6 billion Santos-operated Barossa Gas Project is an offshore gas and condensate production project northwest of Darwin that will supply an onshore liquefied natural gas facility via a 385-kilometer (239-mile) undersea pipeline, with the first gas targeted for 2025.

However, the Indigenous elders wanted the operators to revise its environment management plan to “include potential risks to underwater sacred sites.”

The complainants had asked the top 20 superannuation companies to divest from the gas project by Santos.

“What we are asking these superannuation funds is please respect our human rights,” Antonia Burke, a Malawu clan member, said last year after filing the case.

The major gas project “could generate billions of dollars,” ABC News reported last year.

“The (Santos) projects breach the economic, social and cultural rights of the Impacted Tiwi communities," the complainants had warned.