Darwin methane leak ‘covered up’ by gas companies and regulators for nearly 20 years

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A massive methane leak from a gas export facility in Darwin has been kept secret from the public for almost 20 years in what environmentalists are calling a national scandal. Santos is now planning to use the damaged plant for a controversial new gas project without repairing the leak - or measuring emissions.

Transcript

00:00Inside of Darwin's skyline, a centrepiece of a multi-billion dollar business.

00:07This tank has held vast amounts of liquefied natural gas and a dirty secret.

00:12What we have here is a cover-up at every conceivable scale.

00:17The ABC can reveal that the Darwin LNG plant has leaked methane from its inception in 2006.

00:24The public was never told about the issue, which is revealed in documents obtained by the ABC

00:29and the Environment Centre Northern Territory.

00:31This is a huge leak of methane that will have significant impacts on the climate

00:37and puts the people of Darwin and Palmerston at risk.

00:43A design fault in the tank led to supercooled LNG overflowing and causing cracks in a vapour barrier,

00:49allowing methane to escape into the atmosphere.

00:52Operators knew about the leak for eight months before reporting it to the NT government in 2020,

00:58just hours after getting approval for plans to extend the plant's life.

01:02The timing is very, very curious.

01:05NT officials were initially concerned about the risk of an explosion.

01:09I would have expected the regulators to demand that there be public disclosure of this risk and this leak.

01:15The NT Environment Protection Authority now says the leak isn't big enough to pose an immediate threat.

01:21Santos says the tank is safe to use for its new Barossa gas project,

01:25but it won't be fixing the leak or measuring the estimated carbon pollution,

01:30the equivalent of putting 7,000 new cars on the road every year until 2050.

01:35And that's just nowhere near good enough given the importance of methane emissions.

01:40We think Santos should be forced to fix the leak.

01:43Regulators say that's a commercial decision for the company.

01:47of theокs of the new Power requests are failing,

01:50or the other physicians who can inspect the leak that they suggest any REAL coincidence.

01:54They are increasing the electricity that Dんです them by the way.

02:08What do you see?

02:09The AG D, why don't you exactly be able to manage it,

02:10just a commercial decision?

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