Santos chief govt Kevin Gallagher has criticised the Australian authorities for pursuing vitality insurance policies that are not “wise or prudent,” saying the uncertainty is scaring away funding and in regards to the nation’s Asian companions.
Mr Gallagher lamented that Australia didn’t have a bipartisan vitality coverage and “energy has been handed to the Greens basically, and so they simply need to shut all the pieces down, proper?”
“Finally, that is the place we’re immediately, we’ve a difficult atmosphere – however I name on the federal government to work collectively, in order that we will have wise vitality insurance policies, wise local weather insurance policies,” Mr Gallagher stated in Adelaide following Santos’ annual common assembly,
Mr Gallagher referred to Santos’ offshore Barossa fuel undertaking off the coast of the NT, which has confronted scrutiny and authorized challenges and is perhaps impacted by the Labor authorities’s “safeguard mechanism” for slicing emissions regardless of being 55 per cent full.
“All the fuel from Barossa for the subsequent 15 years, it is bought, it is bought to Japan and Korea – they rely on that vitality for his or her vitality,” he stated.
“And we have to take that stuff significantly. We won’t simply be turning issues off at brief discover and altering the foundations.”
Mr Gallagher stated he supported the safeguard mechanism however added the $4.7 billion Barossa undertaking, due for completion in 2025, must be thought-about “grandfathered” in as a result of it’s so far alongside.
“I do not like the truth that a retrospective change can have an effect on a undertaking after it has been FID and it is 55 per cent constructed,” he stated, utilizing an acronym for a remaining funding resolution.
“That doesn’t like a smart or prudent coverage to me. That looks like a take care of the Greens.”
Mr Gallagher stated he wished to work with the federal government however requested it to provide readability and the regulatory framework as shortly as doable so Santos may get on and do what it wanted to do.
He additionally known as on Australia to do extra round carbon seize and storage, or CCS, as a strategy to fight greenhouse emissions.
“The anti-oil-and-gas activists world wide push again on that, a number of strain on governments to not assist CCS, as a result of their worry is it solely prolongs oil and fuel.
“However oil and and fuel goes be right here whether or not CCS is right here or not. That is only a truth of life – you can not change oil and fuel.”
Renewable vitality can solely produce electrical energy, whereas oil and fuel is used as a feedstock to supply many objects from on a regular basis life, Mr Gallagher famous.
Mr Gallagher additionally boasted of what he described as Santos’ sturdy relationship with Indigenous stakeholders with the tasks it has up and working.
He stated whereas Santos consulted broadly on the Barossa undertaking, he revered a latest Federal Courtroom resolution had broadened the spectrum of the stakeholders that the corporate wanted to seek the advice of with and stated that course of has begun.
A smoking ceremony was held by conventional house owners outdoors the Adelaide Conference Centre the place the AGM was held.
