Santos on the hunt for EDO backers in latest court stoush

Santos is looking to recoup costs from the failed bid to block its Barossa offshore gas project in a move that could lift the lid on some of Environmental Defenders Office’s mysterious backers.

On Friday the oil and gas giant applied for a subpoena in the Federal Court to access correspondence between the Environmental Defenders Office and third parties to find out if other financial backers were footing the bill for the EDO’s legal attack.

One of the parties in question is the non-profit climate activist organisation Market Forces, which is based in Melbourne.

In January Santos won its court battle to build a $7 billion gas project off the coast of the Northern Territory’s Tiwi Islands, after a judge threw out claims its export pipeline would destroy Aboriginal ‘songlines’ deep in the ocean.

The Barossa opponents previously won a court order in November to prevent Santos laying the pipeline, which runs at least 7km offshore in the Timor Sea.

A small group of traditional owners — who were represented by the taxpayer-funded Environmental Defenders Office — claimed the pipeline would intersect with the submerged ‘Crocodile Man’ songline and the underwater resting place of the rainbow serpent.

Justice Charlesworth ruled that a “lack of integrity” in some of the cultural heritage reports supporting the songline claims had undermined the case against Santos.

Santos was awarded costs by the Court.

The latest legal move by Santos could ensure that it recoups costs from the trial — which are yet to be finalised — even if the EDO cannot stump up the cash.

The EDO — which is also behind an ongoing challenge to environmental approvals for Woodside’s massive Scarborough expansion — is slated to receive another $150,000 from the WA Government over the next two years.

This is on top of funding from the Albanese government, which reinstated federal funding for the EDO after the 2022 election, allocating $8.2 million over four years.