Summary
Santos has been working at the forefront of Australia's natural gas industry for over 50 years. We directly employ over three thousand Australians, support thousands of jobs, and invest billions of dollars to supply gas to homes and businesses.
We seek to operate safely and responsibly and we abide by the robust regulatory conditions and stringent approvals processes set out by state and federal regulators.
We accept that the community has many questions about the expansion of coal seam gas activity in Australia. We need to make sure that the community has all the facts to make decisions.
I was therefore very concerned that Monday’s ABC 4 Corners program may have given viewers a misleading impression about Santos, and the natural gas industry.
Here are some facts that were omitted from the program:
The Santos GLNG project in Queensland was subject to an extremely comprehensive environmental approval process. Rather than being rushed, as claimed by 4 Corners, this process took over three years to complete between 2007 and 2010, involved 20,000 pages of environmental assessment and resulted in 1200 specific environmental conditions.
The Environmental Impact Statement for the project included a detailed, 208-page groundwater assessment prepared by independent consultants, which was provided to the Queensland Coordinator-General and subsequently confirmed by the independent Queensland Water Commission.
Santos GLNG publishes up-to-date groundwater monitoring results online at www.santoswaterportal.com.au.
The Queensland and Federal regulators concluded that the information met the requirements of impact assessment and recommended that the Santos GLNG project proceed subject to conditions.
Natural gas represents a huge opportunity for Australia and the region to move to a cleaner future. The facts about CSG are important and are critical to the continued development of an industry that benefits all Australians.
David Knox
CEO & Managing Director
Santos Ltd
