Santos Darwin Pipeline Duplication Project given NT EPA approval
The Santos Darwin Pipeline Duplication Project has been given environmental approval following an assessment by the independent Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority (NT EPA).
The Environment Protection Act 2019 requires an environmental impact assessment and separate environmental approval for all projects that have the potential to have a significant impact on the environment.
Santos is developing the Barossa Gas Export Pipeline to bring gas from the Barossa reservoir in the Timor Sea, to Darwin. The NT EPA assessed the Santos Darwin Pipeline Duplication Project, which is the section of the pipeline in NT waters.
The pipeline duplicates a section of the existing Bayu-Undan pipeline, which is proposed to stay in place to provide Santos with the option of repurposing it to transport CO2 to the depleted Bayu-Undan reservoir for sequestration.
The NT EPA considered potential significant impacts from the project including on the marine environment, culture and heritage, and from greenhouse gas emissions.
The environmental approval includes conditions to ensure potential environmental impacts are managed to an acceptable level.
The Barossa Gas project is worth $6.4 billion dollars to the NT economy and will create 600 local jobs through construction, and hundreds more over the next 2 decades.
The environmental approval can be viewed on the Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security website.