{"id":42707,"date":"2025-08-04T11:28:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T11:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/42707\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T11:28:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T11:28:07","slug":"fracking-failures-hidden-amid-claims-gas-companies-being-given-free-rein-in-top-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/42707\/","title":{"rendered":"Fracking failures hidden amid claims gas companies being “given free rein” in Top End"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Northern Territory government attempted to cover up a fracking company\u2019s\u00a0failure to comply with its environmental management plan when drilling between two underground aquifers, an environmental group says.<\/p>\n

On Thursday the Department of Land, Planning and Environment (DLPE) responded to a Question on Notice from Greens MLC Kat McNamara about the activity of Imperial Oil and Gas, a subsidiary of Empire Energy, during the process of drilling a well in the Beetaloo Basin.<\/p>\n

Referring to reports by the\u00a0NT Independent<\/a>\u00a0in May this year, McNamara sought to clarify with DLPE claims that Imperial had encountered three \u201cincidents\u201d during drilling in 2022. The department had previously reported information about the first two, but details of the third were left unspecified.<\/p>\n

In its reply the department said \u201cthere was no incident,\u201d but went on to confirm the company had failed to comply with its environmental management plan (EMP) and had previously been recommended for prosecution by DPLE.<\/p>\n

The breach occurred when the company was drilling the Carpentaria 3H well in 2022 where it failed to isolate two underground aquifers, Anthony Lagoon and Gum Ridge, as required\u00a0under regulations in force at the time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

DLPE said it became aware of the breach in December 2022 when it was asked by another department about the \u201cnaming conventions of the aquifers referenced in Imperial\u2019s Well Barrier Integrity Validation (WBIV) report\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough this process the Petroleum Regulations Unit within DLPE, became aware the aquifers for Carpentaria 3H had not been isolated as required under the EMP,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Companies attempting to drill through overlapping or adjacent underground aquifers are required to isolate the bodies of water to stop one from flowing into the other. <\/p>\n

Where they are allowed to flow freely, water sources may become contaminated by hyper-saline water or other pollutants, natural processes can become disrupted and there can be profound changes to aboveground ecosystems that draw upon them.<\/p>\n

DLPE said it had previously \u201cinvestigated the non-compliance and recommended prosecution be pursued by the Minister for Environment and Climate Change\u201d, a reference to Kate Worden in the previous Labor NT government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe minister did not agree to pursue this prosecution,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Following this the matter was referred to the Department of Mines and Energy which did not pursue the matter.<\/p>\n

The existence of a 34-page briefing was identified by\u00a0anti-mining group Lock the Gate through a Freedom of Information request<\/a>. The application was refused on the basis it contained \u201cdeliberative matter\u201d.<\/p>\n

Renew Economy contacted DPLE for comment.<\/p>\n

In its response to the Question on Notice, DPLE said it did not previously disclose the breach as \u201cthere was no breach of an environmental performance outcome or standard in the EMP\u201d and \u201cthere is no obligation in legislation for public reporting of every instance of non-compliance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hannah Ekin from the Arid Lands Environment Centre (ALEC) said it had taken the NT government three years and two administrations to answer basic questions about what happened despite multiple inquiries, describing the actions of the government as \u201cdefinitely a cover up\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows what people have been saying for a decade: you cannot trust this industry to not cause damage to aquifers,\u201d Ekin said. \u201cThis is one well, we\u2019re finding out about this three years later and the government has done everything it can to avoid prosecuting and letting the public know.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis company has been recklessly irresponsible and it\u2019s super dodgy how they\u2019ve tried to hide this from the public. [The NT government] have run us around in circles and they\u2019ve refused any accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ekin said Empire has since drilled four more wells and has plans to drill \u201cthousands\u201d more saying the situation suggested the government was \u201cnot capable or willing to adequately regulate\u201d fracking projects to ensure there aren\u2019t impacts on groundwater.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe entire point of an Environment Management Plan is to ensure fracking companies abide by a set of rules and regulations,\u201d Ekin says. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf nothing happens when companies fail to meet these standards, fracking companies are effectively being given free rein to do as they wish. This puts Territorian communities and the precious water they rely on at risk.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shortly after being elected the Country Liberal Party\u00a0stripped the Arid Lands Environment Centre and the NT Environment Centre<\/a>\u00a0of public funding.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Royce Kurmelovs is an Australian freelance journalist and author.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Northern Territory government attempted to cover up a fracking company\u2019s\u00a0failure to comply with its environmental management plan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,128],"class_list":["post-42707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}