Since November 2014, Circle Advisory has been working with Jemena on its Northern Gas Pipeline (NGP) Project.
The $800 million nationally significant infrastructure project consists of a 622km gas pipeline running from near Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory to Mount Isa in western Queensland, two gas compressor stations and associated facilities.
Circle is proud to be primarily responsible for the management of social and economic impact on the NGP Project, through:
Land Access – agreement making and implementation with eight Aboriginal Language Groups (comprising many more individual land estate groups) resulting in nine Indigenous Land Use Agreements and two Aboriginal Land Rights Act agreements, negotiated with six Aboriginal representative organisations across two jurisdictions (Northern Territory and Queensland).
Cultural Heritage Management – undertaking surveys, field logistics, reporting, negotiations and implementation of four separate Cultural Heritage Management Plans associated with land access agreements, across the two jurisdictions including all associated approvals.
Local and National Economic Development and Participation – the development and implementation of the Industry Participation Plan (IPP) for the NGP Project including initial project supply and demand analysis for goods, services and labour, with a focus on local and Indigenous jobs and contracts. The development and implementation of strategies and programs for maximising local content, including managing communications and stakeholder engagement on local content, project ready training programs for local Aboriginal people, local and Aboriginal contracting.
Social and Economic Impact Management – the development and implementation of the Economic and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) Scoping Study, Economic and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA), and Economic and Social Impact Management Plan (ESIMP) for the NGP Project in accordance with the Northern Territory Environmental Protection Authority Guidelines and including the development of a bespoke model for the NGP Project to manage social and economic risk and opportunity from it.
The SIA Scoping Study can be downloaded from here and the full ESIA Report from here (Appendix D to the Supplementary EIS Report).
The NGP commenced operations in January 2019 and to this day Circle continues to work with Jemena in support of its operations.