As it prepares for first gas in 2025 at its Barossa gas project, 300 kilometres north of Darwin, the global energy company is also advancing plans for other projects throughout the region,including a carbon capture storage hub at Bayu-Undan in Timor-Leste to link back to Darwin LNG.

“These are real projects, backed by real money, delivering real impact,” chief executive Kevin Gallagher says.

“Our projects are aimed at energy security domestically and across the Asian region where our neighbours do not have the wealth of energy resources that we do in Australia.

“Just as importantly, our projects are delivering economic opportunities for the next generation of Territorians in the form of skilled, secure, well-paying jobs and local business opportunities.”

Santos is committed to helping close the gap on Aboriginal disadvantage through training, education and good jobs, and has generated more than 800 early career, pre-employment and training opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander apprentices and cadets across its operations in the past decade.

“Education and employment opportunities are a universal foundation to give everyone the chance to achieve a quality of life most Australians, especially in our big cities, take for granted,” Mr Gallagher says.

Darwin LNG, which has a 100 per cent local workforce, generates about $100 million a year in supply and service opportunities for Territory businesses. The local workforce also pays dividends to communities in the form of families in homes, kids in schools, customers shopping in local stores, playing in and coaching sports teams, and volunteering in the community.

“It’s these ingredients that make communities vibrant, sustainable, productive and prosperous,” Mr Gallagher says.

Darwin LNG’s major maintenance shutdown every four years brings a further 600 jobs to town and injects up to $50 million into the Territory economy through local supply and service opportunities.

Meanwhile, Santos’ landmark $5 billion Barossa gas project, which is set to come online in 2025, will create 300 operations and maintenance jobs, and $2.5 billion in wages, supply and service purchases is expected to flow to Territorians over the life of the project.

Santos is committed to ensuring that the community benefit of its projects goes far beyond the homes of those who work in its operations. The business is also committed to using its operations as the springboard to help young Territorians train, learn and build the necessary foundations to pursue their own careers.

“As part of our commitment to the Top End, we are delivering training and employment opportunities for Aboriginal Territorians at Darwin LNG, helping young people make the leap from leaving school to entering the workforce,” Mr Gallagher says.

He says a “fantastic example” of this is the Santos-KAEFER Training and Employment Program, which offers a new pathway to good jobs for Aboriginal Territorians. 

The Santos Barossa Aboriginal Future Fund will invest up to $10 million in initiatives in Territory coastal Aboriginal communities and homelands as the development phase of the project progresses. From commencement of production through the life of the Barossa project, investments of more than $100 million are expected to flow to these communities over the next 20 years or more. 

Mr Gallagher says the Territory has enormous potential as a leading supplier of affordable energy with prolific gas resources both offshore and onshore. 

At Santos’ Investor Day in November, Mr Gallagher and company executives spoke about the enormous potential of the Beetaloo shales, which could not only support new industrial development in the Top End, but have sufficient scale to solve looming supply shortfalls in the east coast market as well. 

Mr Gallagher is frank about wider opportunities for the Territory to become the centre of a modern Australian energy and decarbonisation industry, supplying LNG and domestic gas while also emerging as a carbon capture and storage hub for the Asian region. 

“It has a wealth of gas resources, onshore and offshore, a wealth of renewable resources, particularly solar, and a wealth of both geological and nature-based carbon sequestration opportunities. 

“It has plenty of land and deepwater ports and it is close to our energy markets in Asia.” 

But securing the Territory’s future at the centre of Australia’s future energy industry requires the cooperation and support of multiple governments, territory, state and federal, as well as more certainty over approvals processes and regulatory frameworks. 

“We need stable regulatory environments at all levels of government to facilitate investment in Australia’s resources to create good jobs and local business opportunities, develop our regions and build stronger communities, generate government revenues to help fund schools and hospitals, and bring in export income for the nation,” Mr Gallagher says. 

“Resources, particularly energy resources, are the Territory’s comparative advantage and they are Australia’s comparative advantage. 

“I hope that the industry, together with the NT Government, can start to unlock the wealth of the Territory’s gas resources over the next four years, both onshore in the Beetaloo and offshore, mostly in Commonwealth waters. 

“Australia is rich in gas resources and there is no excuse for gas shortages, domestically or for export. 

“There is a simple fix. Just like housing, the answer is to bring on more supply to meet market demand.”