A company that wants to explore offshore gas supplies between Sydney and Newcastle is asking the Federal Court to overturn a decision former prime minister Scott Morrison made to reject an extension of its licence.
PEP-11 is an exploration licence covering 4,500 square kilometres offshore from Manly on Sydney's Northern Beaches to Nobbys Head in Newcastle.
Prior to the federal election, Mr Morrison rejected BPH Energy's proposed two-year extension on the licence, which would have enabled it to drill an exploratory well to further test gas reserves off the coast.
The veto came amid environment concerns and fierce community opposition to the project.
Federal Labor's leader and now Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also promised to reject it if the ALP won government.
BPH Energy told the ABC it had lodged paperwork with the Federal Court for a judicial review into the decision to reject its PEP 11 licence extension.
The company questioned the process used by the Commonwealth-NSW Offshore Petroleum Joint Authority to make the decision and said it had appealed to the Federal Court asking for that process to be reviewed.
Gas crisis blame game
The court action comes while eastern Australia is threatened by a gas supply crisis.
Newly-installed Energy Minister Chris Bowen said the mechanism that allowed the government to requisition gas destined for export was poorly designed.
He laid blame for Australia's current gas crisis on the Coalition, which he accused of botching energy policy for close to a decade.
BPH Energy has previously said the east coast gas shortage would continue unless action was taken to source more gas at an effective price.
A timeline for the Federal Court proceedings are yet to be determined.
The NSW government said its opposition to PEP 11 remained in light of the current energy crisis.
