A gas company boss has told a parliamentary committee that reserves in the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo Basin represent “Australia’s greatest emissions reduction opportunity” in remarks quickly dismissed by climate groups.
The committee held a hearing on Monday to grill Tamboran Resources about public funding its subsidiary Sweetpea Petroleum had received for exploratory drilling.
The company also revealed it was able to offset a quarter of the drilling costs for one of its wells through a $7.5m grant from the previous government.
The chair of the inquiry, the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, asked the company to consider paying back the money it received.
Tamboran’s chief executive, Joel Riddle, told senators the company originally sought three grants of $7.5m for three separate wells.
He said only one application was ultimately eligible due to legal challenges delaying exploratory drilling at two of the wells.
The company has received $4.2m of the funding so far as a rebate for drilling activity. The full $7.5m would cover about 25% of the drilling costs – an amount he said would make a “material” difference.
“Do you think the taxpayer should have to cover 25% of an operation like yours?” Hanson-Young asked.
“I think the merits of the grant scheme is in the hands of parliament,” Riddle said.
In comments after the hearing, Hanson-Young said public money “should not be propping up polluting projects that can’t stand on their own two feet”.
“The government should put a stop to these subsidies in the budget and Tamboran should pay back the money it’s already taken,” Hanson-Young said.
On Sunday, the resources minister, Madeleine King, told Sky News that if projects were “not financially able to stand on their own two feet, there shouldn’t be government injection of cash into them”.
In his opening remarks, Riddle said reserves such as the Beetaloo were “critical” to lowering greenhouse gas emissions because they were “low CO2 reserves”.
He then described the basin as “Australia’s greatest emissions reduction opportunity”. The comments were quickly dismissed by climate groups given the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said no new gas, oil or, coal development can take place if the world is to limit global heating to 1.5C.
Greg Bourne, a former regional president of BP Australasia and a councillor at the Climate Council, said the IEA’s advice brought development in the Beetaloo, as well as the Narrabri and Scarborough gas projects, into sharp focus.
“These are the three that begin to be put under pressure and under the pump,” he said.
“Origin has stepped out of the Beetaloo – they are clearly seeing the writing on the wall.”
Richie Merzian, the director of the Australia Institute’s climate and energy program, said unconventional gas development was more high emitting than conventional gas development.
“Gas is a high-emitting fuel that exacerbates climate change and no amount of greenwashing will change that,” he said.
