Top End groups are raising alarms about the integrity of the fracking assessment process in the Northern Territory, following US petroleum company Tamboran’s announcement of a gas supply deal with the NT Government for a project that has yet to receive approval.
Tamboran announced to the ASX that it had signed an agreement to supply gas from the Shenandoah Pilot Project, a venture still under government assessment.
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The Shenandoah Pilot Project aims to drill 15 frack wells near the ecologically and culturally significant Lake Woods, requiring 375 million liters of groundwater annually and using up to 606,000 liters of chemicals and 2,351 tonnes of sand per well.
Despite these significant environmental impacts, neither Tamboran nor the NT Government has referred the project’s effects on water to the federal government for assessment, as mandated by the recently updated “water trigger” legislation.
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has yet to intervene, despite persistent community calls for federal assessment under the new legislation.
Dr. Sam Phelan, a Katherine veterinarian and founder of Protect Big Rivers, criticized the decision, stating, “This announcement shows the fox is still in charge of the henhouse, with the NT Government signing deals to accept gas from a project that it is currently under assessment. It makes a mockery of the decision-making process and shows that the Lawler Government is willing to risk our water and climate to help Tamboran on the stock market.”
Phelan also highlighted the risks posed by recent flooding in the area, which affected existing and planned frack sites. “The NT public cannot have any faith that we are safe from the known risks of fracking when the Lawler Government signs these types of supply deals with companies when their projects are still being assessed and have not even been approved yet,” he added.
Frack Free NT spokesperson Pete Callender echoed these concerns, accusing the Lawler Government of neglecting environmental and community welfare. “Territorians are really worried that the Lawler Government is selling our environment and communities down a polluted river while the Federal Government seems to have its head in the sand,” Callender said.
He urged Federal MPs to hold Environment Minister Plibersek accountable. “If Tanya Plibersek won’t proactively use her powers to assess these fracking projects, we’re calling on our NT representatives Marion Scrymgour, Malarndirri McCarthy, and Luke Gosling to speak to her today, and demand she calls this project in under the expanded water trigger.”
The proposed Shenandoah Exploration and Appraisal project includes drilling and fracking 15 horizontal gas wells, potentially reaching depths of 4,300 meters and lengths of over 1,000 meters. The project plans to use up to 1,117 megaliters of water, including extracting 375 megaliters annually from the Gum Ridge Formation of the Cambrian Limestone Aquifer.
The project could release up to 1.1 million tonnes of direct greenhouse gas pollution over four years and proposes storing up to 34 million liters of wastewater in open storage ponds, contrary to fracking inquiry recommendations for enclosed tanks to limit contamination risks.
The Shenandoah Pilot Project is set to be built upstream of Lake Woods, the NT’s largest freshwater lake and a site of cultural significance for Traditional Owners. The project would also clear 145 hectares of habitat, potentially impacting threatened species such as the Gouldian Finch and Spectacled Hare-wallaby.
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