ALECOMM

The company behind a $34 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in the Northern Territory is trying to renege on its agreement to complete $30 million worth of environmental projects.

The Ichthys INPEX joint venture will take natural gas off the coast of Western Australia and pipe it 900 kilometres underwater to a processing plant in Darwin Harbour.

Seventy per cent of the gas will go to Japan once production begins.

Government approval was conditional on the company delivering $91 million of environmental offset projects over the 40-year life of the project.

But the Federal Environment Department has confirmed INPEX has sought approval to revise its offset program "in light of lower-than-expected environmental impacts for the project".

The ABC understands the company wants to save around $30 million by dumping marine and land reserves it agreed to establish.

That includes 2,000 hectares of mangroves and land, plus "marine habitat for inshore dolphins, marine turtles and dugong".

Sources have told the ABC a $24 million partnership with Aboriginal rangers "to provide for co-management of dugong, coastal dolphins and Marine turtles" along approximately 300 kilometres of coast is in danger if the Federal Government approves INPEX's request.

Environmental risks no longer relevant: INPEX

In a statement to the ABC, the general manager of INPEX, Sean Kildare, said the assessed environmental risks were no longer relevant.

"[The request for changes] was made on the basis that independently verified environmental studies have demonstrated many of the environmental risks assessed at the time of approval are no longer relevant and are extremely unlikely to be realised in future".

The company's environmental pledges were a condition of the Federal Government approving the Ichthys LNG project under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC), in 2011.

INPEX described its offset projects on the company website as "designed to compensate for residual environmental impacts associated with the project".

Elsewhere it said: "We are committed to establishing, building and maintaining community trust. We work closely with stakeholders to ensure information is readily available to the community, as well as providing mechanisms for feedback and response."

Mr Kildare said in his statement that more than $100 million had been spent "on baseline environmental studies and investigations" off the Kimberly coast and the broader Darwin region, which had "substantially increased the scientific knowledge of these minimally studied areas".

The footprint of the Ichthys project stretches from Western Australia to the Northern Territory.

PHOTO This map shows the footprint of the LNG operation.

SUPPLIED: ICHTHYS INPEX

INPEX said offset projects, including aerial surveys of dugong, dolphin and turtles along the entire NT coastline and a 40-year program of monitoring and research in Darwin Harbour, were already underway.

Others, such as ecological surveys in the Kimberley and two national research grants have already been completed.

Mr Kildare said "a significant investment of time, money and people" had shown predicted environmental impacts of the Ichthys project had been "either completely removed ... or were not applicable based on expert advice".

The Federal Environment Department has asked INPEX for more documentation to support the company's request for "a variation of its approval conditions".

Northern Territory Minister for the Environment, Mr Gary Higgins, said it was a matter for the Federal Government who the NT trusted to "assess the proposal based on the facts and the science".

Environment Minister Greg Hunt declined to answer questions put by the ABC.

Source : https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-31/inpex-joint-venture-seeks-to-dump-federal-environmental-projects/7289310