The Australian gas giant Santos has prevailed in a legal dispute over a controversial underwater pipeline. A First Nations group had sued the project because they feared risks to underwater sites that are sacred to them.
Australian gas giant Santos has been proven right: it can proceed with laying a controversial undersea pipeline for its $5.7 billion Barossa gas project in the Timor Sea north of Darwin. The company today won a legal dispute against a group of First Nations from the Tiwi Islands in the region, as the ABC reported, citing the responsible court.
Santos had had to pause work on the pipeline since November, when a group of First Nations elders won an injunction in court. They accuse Santos of failing to adequately assess whether the 163-mile (263-kilometer) pipeline would damage underwater cultural heritage sites and sacred “Dreamtime” sites.
Risks for cultural Underwater sites
Some Tiwi Islander elders had called for Santos to revise the plans. They believe that the report written by Santos did not properly assess the potential risks to underwater cultural sites and spiritual beings sacred to them, such as the “Crocodile Man” or “Mother Ampiji”, also known as the “Rainbow Serpent”.
The First Nations are convinced that the “songlines” (dream paths) run through the waters – a kind of mythical-cultural map of the indigenous people. The term “Dreamtime” stands for the complex mythology of the First Nations, who have inhabited the country for around 60,000 years.
Oil company welcomes verdict
After a month-long trial in which 23 witnesses from the First Nations from the Tiwi Islands were heard orally or in writing and 26 expert reports were submitted, the judge in charge now ruled that there is only “a negligible probability that there are objects in the area of the pipeline route “could have archaeological value”.
Santos welcomed the verdict. “In accordance with the ruling and in accordance with the environmental plan applicable to the project, Santos will continue pipeline laying for the Barossa Gas Project,” it said in a statement. The aim of the project is to pipe gas to Darwin before shipping it as liquefied natural gas (LNG) to South Korea and Japan.