Australian independent Santos will receive millions of dollars in legal costs, months after the Federal Court ruled in the firm's favour regarding a lawsuit intended to derail its $4.6bn Barossa gas field in the Timor Sea.
Environmental law group the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) must pay Santos' legal bills of slightly more than A$9mn ($5.8mn), 100pc of the company's costs incurred defending a 2023 court case.
The EDO's lawyers claimed Barossa's gas export pipeline required a new environmental plan because of cultural heritage matters, but the court found the action brought on behalf of three Tiwi islander Aboriginal people failed to establish any new facts following a cultural survey along the route of the 262km pipeline.
Justice Natalie Charlesworth dismissed the independence and credibility of an EDO-commissioned underwater map showing cultural sites, with court papers released showing an expert offered to move the location of one such site so it would conflict with the pipeline.
The decision may have a chilling effect on further legal challenges to oil, gas and coal projects in Australia. Court action planned against Australian independent Woodside's $12.5bn Scarborough project offshore Western Australia was called off in August, with the applicant labelling the case as "expensive and risky".
Australia's conservative Coalition alliance has promised to end taxpayer funding for the EDO if it wins control of federal parliament in 2025. The October 2022 budget pledged A$9.8mn over four years and A$2.6mn/yr in ongoing funding to the EDO and fellow national legal organisation Environmental Justice Australia.
Santos plans to bring its $4.6bn, 84pc complete Barossa field in the Timor Sea on line in July-September 2025, a slight delay from the previously guided first half of 2025. The field will provide feedstock for the 3.7mn t/yr Darwin LNG terminal, which exported its final cargo from the Bayu-Undan field in 2023.
