Australian court permits re-issue of shale drill grants to Empire Energy arm (updated)

Beetaloo Energy Australia

23/12/2021 05:25

(Adds minister's comment, details of judgment; paragraphs)
    By Sonali Paul
    MELBOURNE, Dec 23 (Reuters) - An Australian court declared
void on Thursday grants the federal government made to a
subsidiary of Empire Energy Group  EEG.AX  for exploration
drilling in the Beetaloo shale basin in the Northern Territory,
but allowed them to be re-issued.
    The grants can be re-issued by Resources Minister Keith Pitt
as the court rejected challenges to the government's Beetaloo
drilling grants programme and approvals for Imperial Energy's
drilling under the scheme.
    "This is a commonsense decision that will allow grants for
the development of the Beetaloo Basin to proceed," Pitt said in
a statement.
    The programme had the potential to deliver thousands of jobs
and billions of dollars in economic activity in Australia's
remote Northern Territory, he added.
    Empire Managing Director Alex Underwood was not immediately
available to comment on the court's ruling.
    The court voided A$21 million ($15 million) in grants to
Imperial Energy, saying their issue was "unreasonable or
capricious" at a time when it was considering a challenge by the
Environment Centre NT Inc against the Beetaloo programme and the
Imperial approvals.
    However it rejected Environment Centre NT's arguments that
the government should have weighed the impact on climate change
and on Australia's ability to meet carbon emissions targets
before setting up the programme.
    Justice John Griffiths said those were not factors the
government needed to consider, as the programme and the grants
were for exploration drilling and not gas production.
    Empire is one of several companies, including Santos Ltd
 STO.AX  and Origin Energy  ORG.AX , that are exploring shale
acreage in the Northern Territory, which is estimated to hold
200 trillion cubic feet of shale gas resources.
    Empire's shares were put on a trading halt on Thursday
pending the decision.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nASN0020VG
 ($1=A$1.3866)

 (Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Himani Sarkar and
Clarence Fernandez)
 ((Sonali.Paul@thomsonreuters.com; +61 407 119 523;))