Aussie court voids Beetaloo gas explorations grants to Empire
An Australian court has ruled invalid the grants the federal government made to Empire Energy for exploration drilling in the Beetaloo basin in the Northern Territory, Empire said on December 23. The court has allowed the grants to be reissued, however.
The court rejected an activist organisation’s legal challenge to the federal government’s Beetaloo basin exploration grants programme but ruled initial contracts invalid for procedural reasons.
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Empire said it intends to work with the government to negotiate replacement agreements. The federal court handed down its judgment on claims made in proceedings by an activist organisation Environment Centre NT Inc (ENT) against the government’s Beetaloo Cooperative Drilling Programme.
Empire’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Imperial Oil & Gas was joined to the case because it is a party to grant agreements.
The court dismissed the ENT claims for judicial review in respect of the decisions concerning the instrument and the approval decision for funding under the Beetaloo Cooperative Drilling Programme to Imperial. ENT had argued that the government should have looked into the issue of climate change and carbon emissions before announcing the programme.
However, the court found that the government’s decision to enter the grant contracts with Imperial was legally unreasonable, in that the government’s power was exercised after this litigation started.
“As no funds had been advanced by the Commonwealth to Imperial under the grant contracts, no funds are repayable to the Commonwealth,” Empire said.
The federal minister for resources and water, Keith Pitt welcomed the decision. “The instrument under which the grant programme was written and the approval decision to award grants to Imperial Oil & Gas were both valid and we welcome that decision so that we can move forward with the programme,” he said.
The Australian government in July announced it would provide Imperial up to A$21mn ($15.18mn) to support three new exploration wells in the company’s EP187 exploration zone in the basin’s east.