By Stuart Condie
SYDNEY–Santos can push ahead with its plan to lay a pipeline through a gas field off Australia’s north coast after a court dismissed an attempt by indigenous inhabitants to hold up the project.
A judge at Australia’s Federal Court on Monday said she was unconvinced by arguments that the pipeline would cause irreparable harm to submerged sites culturally important to inhabitants of the nearby Tiwi Islands.
The project had been held up since November when Tiwi Islander Simon Munkara secured an injunction delaying commencement.
Judge Nathalie Charlesworth on Monday said there was no need for Santos to revise and resubmit its environmental plan for the project.
“Evidence establishes nothing more than a negligible chance that there may be objects of archaeological value in the area of the pipeline route,” Justice Charlesworth said.
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