News just broke that BNP Paribas and The Export-Import Bank of Korea, two major international banks, are no longer involved in the financing of Santos’ Barossa gas project.

It was reported today that BNP Paribas, the world’s ninth-largest bank headquartered in France, is no longer acting as a financial adviser for Santos’ Barossa gas project while The Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM) has confirmed it has not renewed its loans to SK E&S, the oil and gas subsidiary of Santos’ South Korean Partner SK.

Santos is currently building the Barossa gas project to exploit a massive fossil gas field located in the Timor Sea north of Darwin and the Tiwi Islands. 

In April last year, Tiwi and Larrakia Traditional Owners filed human rights complaints alleging that the big four Australian banks – ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, NAB and Westpac, the three Japanese megabanks MUFG, Mizuho, and SMBC and a host of international financiers, breached their human rights commitments by participating in a $1.5 billion loan related to Santos’ destructive Barossa gas project. Recently, ANZ rejected the human rights complaint on the basis that Santos ‘had not consented to participate in the process’.  

Market Forces estimates the Barossa project will pump out 260 million tons of CO2 emissions over its lifetime, worsening the impact of climate disasters on First Nations and all communities, and threatens local marine life, especially turtles, which play a central role in Tiwi culture, ceremonies, and the local ecotourism industry.

Tiwi and Larrakia Traditional Owners are not the only groups that have expressed concerns about Santos’ gas projects. Earlier this year Gomeroi Traditional Owners won an appeal against Santos, with the Australian Federal Court ruling that the Native Title Tribunal should have allowed evidence on climate change when considering Santos’ $3.6 billion Narrabri gas project. 

Banks across the world are waking up to Santos’ destructive climate and human rights plans. A few weeks ago, Papua New Guinea’s own local bank Bank South Pacific ruled out funding to Santos, TotalEnergies and ExxonMobil’s Papua LNG gas project. 

Step up the pressure: tell the banks funding Santos to cut ties.