Santos cleared to build pipeline for $4.3B Barossa gas project, court rules

Australian fuel producer Santos (OTCPK:STOSF) (OTCPK:SSLZY) stated Monday it was granted permission to renew laying an underwater pipeline for its A$5.7B (~US$4.3B) Barossa fuel venture within the Timor Sea after profitable a federal courtroom ruling in a lawsuit by conventional land homeowners from the close by Tiwi Islands.

Work on the pipeline, which is able to join the Barossa fuel discipline to a processing plant in Darwin, was stopped in November by a courtroom order over potential dangers to underwater sacred websites.

The plaintiffs had wished the courtroom to order Santos (OTCPK:STOSF) (OTCPK:SSLZY) to pause development till the corporate had revised its surroundings administration plan to incorporate such potential dangers.

However the decide stated the proof “establishes nothing greater than a negligible probability that there could also be objects of archaeological worth within the space of the pipeline route.”

The Barossa venture, which is co-owned by South Korean and Japanese buyers, nonetheless wants the approval of a number of environmental plans to proceed.

The choice clears a serious hurdle blocking the long-stalled venture and boosts Santos’ (OTCPK:STOSF) (OTCPK:SSLZY) fortunes at a time when shareholders are calling for a meaty premium in a possible merger with rival Woodside Vitality.