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The Northern Territory government has opened an investigation into oil and gas giant Inpex after the company admitted it has been under-reporting potentially toxic emissions from its flagship Ichthys LNG plant on Darwin Harbour. In a statement last week, Inpex — a global Japanese company — conceded it had "identified errors" in the way "some emissions" had been calculated at its onshore facility. Inpex stated the error had not resulted in an "increased health risk to the community" but has refused to release further details, raising fears the company is hiding the true scale of the problem. Last year the ABC revealed the Ichthys facility emitted thousands of tonnes more pollution than permitted — including benzene, sulphur dioxide, and hydrogen sulphide — with no assessment or regulatory intervention from the Northern Territory government, despite benzene's well-established links to cancer. In 2022, Ichthys emitted more toxic chemicals than the Gorgon project off the coast of Western Australia — one of the biggest gas fields in the world. On Friday, the Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority (EPA) quietly issued its own statement saying it had initiated an "immediate investigation" to evaluate the risks and "determine if regulatory action is required". The statement said the EPA would be "working closely with the Chief Health Officer" and that further requests had been made of Inpex to disclose the full impacts of the emissions. The NT EPA board is expected to meet with Inpex on Wednesday to obtain further information. Chair of environmental regulator to step aside over conflict of interest On Tuesday morning, Chief Minister Lia Finnochiaro said she had "full confidence" in the territory's environmental regulator and its chair Paul Vogel to carry out the investigation — that was despite revelations in August he had a paid role with a gas industry lobbyist. "The Chief Health Officer has done a preliminary investigation and has no concerns at this point but we need to draw all of that to a close so that the community has confidence moving forward," Ms Finnochiaro said. "We have full confidence in the chairperson, in the authority, in the work that they do." But just hours later, Environment Minister Josh Burgoyne told parliament Mr Vogel would step aside for the duration of the investigation. In August, the ABC reported a major methane leak at Santos's Darwin LNG export hub had been kept secret from the public for almost 20 years — and Mr Vogel had been involved in key decisions while working with a lobbyist for the project's co-owner. The lobbying firm also previously represented Inpex. Mr Vogel has denied any conflict of interest. Calls for 'serious and real' consequences In its statement, Inpex said air quality monitoring in the Darwin region "has consistently shown emissions levels are well within government guidelines". Across Darwin and Palmerston there are three sites that monitor air quality. However, they do not detect volatile organic compounds — the colourless chemicals, including benzene, that are emitted as a by-product from the gas extraction process. Greens MLA Kat Macnamara said Inpex's error had not only raised fresh questions about transparency but also cast light on the "glaring hole" in the NT's regulations and oversight. "To see scandal after scandal, incident after incident from all these massive, many of them overseas, corporations, gas companies that can just flagrantly break the rules here ... poison our air and water with zero repercussions," they said. "It's a national crisis." They said while they do "not have confidence in this government or anybody that fails to regulate an industry that is doing the wrong thing again and again," the public deserves to know "what's in our air and ... and what's being done about it". The ABC reached out to Inpex, which declined to comment until after the board meeting. The NT EPA was also sent detailed questions, but the ABC did not get a response in time for publication.
