Indigenous traditional owners say they won't give up their opposition to a multi-billion dollar gas project off the coast of Darwin, after losing a court battle in South Korea.
Santos signed off on the $4.7 billion Barossa offshore development last year, which includes a pipeline from a gas field in the Timor Sea to an existing LNG facility on Darwin Harbour.
Tiwi Islands and Darwin Larrakia traditional owners had sought to delay the project by seeking an injunction in the Seoul Central District Court, to block loans being sought by Santos's South Korean partner SK E&S.
The injunction application was an attempt to stop the Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM) and the Korea Trade Group (K-Sure) from providing loans and guarantees of up to $700 million for the project.
Larrakia Danggalaba traditional owner and elder Tibby Quall said he was determined not to drop his opposition.
"It's a bit of a disappointment, but it's not over," he said.
The NT Environment Centre helped the traditional owners take the court action.
Jason Fowler from the centre said he was also disappointed, but not despondent.
"This is one small step in what will be a long battle," he said.
"The South Korean government decided that this is a problem for the Australian government to decide upon.
"It couldn't judge whether there would be any damage for Tiwi Islands and Larrakia people from this project."
Consultation failure accusation
The traditional owners had argued in the court case that they were not properly consulted about environmental and climate change impacts from the project.
Santos predicts that the project, which is to consist of underwater wells, a floating production platform, storage and offloading vessel and the pipeline, will help extend the life of the Darwin LNG processing plant by 20 years.
Mr Quall said he was concerned that marine animals could be harmed by the construction, shipping channel dredging, increased gas ship movements and any spill or accident.
"We weren't consulted about that, no-one approached us, whenever you want to make business you should also consult the traditional owners of the land and the sea country," he said.
"You've got crocodiles, turtles, barramundi, there's plenty of species in the harbour that people fish for and that we are worried about."
"And there are about five major sacred sites in the harbour that haven't been clarified yet.
Key stakeholders were consulted: Santos
Santos said it did not want to comment on the court result because the action was aimed at its partner, not Santos.
It has previously said that it carried out stakeholder consultations on the project, which Santos hopes will start supplying gas to its Darwin plant within three years.
Santos estimates the project will create 600 jobs during construction as well as maintain 350 ongoing jobs in Darwin over the next two decades.
Santos plans carbon capture and storage
Santos has said it plans to minimise climate changing emissions from the project by using carbon capture and storage.
It has previously said that it successfully trialled CCS in South Australia's Cooper Basin.
However, Mr Fowler was skeptical about whether it had been conducted on this scale.
"Santos hasn't done carbon capture and storage at its existing Bayu Undan field which has 6 per cent of carbon dioxide, whereas this Barossa field has nearly 20 per cent of CO2, the technology is not yet there," he said.
Mr Quall said the federal election result, in which many voters endorsed stronger action on tackling climate change, suggested that both the Commonwealth and NT Governments should reconsider allowing the Barossa and other similar projects to go ahead.
