NT Health's Chief Health Officer, Dr Paul Burgess, is collaborating with the NT Environment Protection Authority (EPA) to assess INPEX's historical underreporting of its emissions data at its Ichthys LNG facility.
INPEX has notified the NT EPA of a calculation error that had resulted in an under-estimate of annual emissions of benzene and other volatile organic compounds.
Current INPEX monitoring data suggests that emissions of benzene are approximately monitored 5 times lower than investigation thresholds. The Chief Health Officer has confirmed there is no evidence of increased health risks associated with current operations at the INPEX facility.
Under the Public and Environmental Health Act 2011, the Chief Health Officer has a statutory role to assess potential risks to public health in the Northern Territory.
As such, the Chief Health Officer has met with INPEX and will continue to work closely with the NT EPA to independently assess any risks to human health, with a report expected by the end of 2025.
An independent investigator has been tasked to verify all of INPEX's data.
