Top End groups have labelled the fracking assessment process in the Territory as fatally compromised after US petroleum company Tamboran announced to the ASX that it had signed a deal to supply gas to the NT Government from a pilot project that is yet to receive approval from that very government.
The Shenandoah Pilot Project would drill 15 frack wells near the internationally-recognised, ecologically and culturally significant Lake Woods. It would require 375 million litres of groundwater each year and use as much as 606,000 litres of chemicals and 2,351 tonnes of sand per well.
Despite this, neither Tamboran nor the NT Government have referred the Shenandoah Pilot Project’s impacts on water to the federal government for assessment, as should be required under the revamped “water trigger” legislation, passed earlier this year.
Likewise, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek so far appears unwilling to call the project in.
That’s despite repeated calls from the community for the project to be referred under the legislation.
Katherine veterinarian and Protect Big Rivers founder Dr Sam Phelan said,
“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.
“The part of the NT where Tamboran wants to drill its Shenandoah Pilot Project has just experienced widespread flooding. Existing and planned frack sites were totally cut off and were obviously flooded. We know fracking contaminates surface and groundwater.
“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.”
Frack Free NT spokesperson Pete Callender said, “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.
“Our Federal MPs need to deliver on promises made to our communities on water and climate change.
“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.
“Territorians are relying on the Federal Government to step in where the Lawler Government has so abysmally failed.”
ENDS
Impacts of the proposed Shenandoah Exploration and Appraisal project:
-
Tamboran wants to drill and frack 15 horizontal gas wells. Based on recent wells drilled in adjoining areas, these may reach 4,300m deep and over 1,000m long.
-
Use up to 1,117ML of water for fracking and drilling, including extracting 375 ML/year of water from the Gum Ridge Formation of the Cambrian Limestone Aquifer from up to 24 new groundwater bores.
-
Tamboran’s plan indicates the project will use as much as 606,000 litres of chemicals and 2,351 tonnes of sand per well.
-
The project could release up to 1.1 million tonnes of direct greenhouse gas pollution over four years (Tamboran’s own lower estimates relied on vague intentions to sell gas directly from the site to claim a lower carbon footprint) Tamboran proposes storing up to 34 million litres of wastewater in huge open storage ponds on site during the wet season, despite Fracking Inquiry recommendations that fracking wastewater should be kept in enclosed tanks to limit contamination risks.
-
The project would be built upstream of Lake Woods - the NT’s largest freshwater lake and a place of immense cultural significance for Traditional Owners.
-
The project would clear 145 hectares of habitat likely to support threatened and declining species including the Gouldian Finch and Spectacled Hare-wallaby.