Tiwi Islander Dennis Tipakalippa is fighting the national offshore gas regulator’s decision to allow Santos to drill eight wells in the Barossa gas field, 265 kilometres northwest of Darwin.

The Munupi elder says he was not consulted over the company’s environmental plan and fears the project could damage his people’s sea-country.

The regulator had material to show the Munupi people were relevant and interested parties who needed to be consulted on the project, Mr Tipakalippa’s barrister Claire Harris QC told the Federal Court in Darwin.

“Their relationship to the land and sea readily falls within the concept of an interest,” she said on Wednesday.

“Those kinds of interests are well known to the courts.”

Santos should have given the Munupi people and other Tiwi Islander traditional owners all of the relevant information so they could provide appropriate feedback, Ms Harris said.

Santos, which is Australia’s second-largest independent gas producer, has said it had all necessary approvals following consultation with stakeholders.

The $US3.6 billion ($A5.2 billion) offshore natural gas development is expected to create up to 600 jobs and pipe gas 280km to the Darwin LNG facility, with first production expected in 2025.

The company says the project, which it purchased from ConocoPhillips in 2020, is 43 per cent complete and on schedule. The drilling that is the subject of the court case started in July.

Santos’ lawyers will begin their closing arguments on Thursday morning.

-AAP