File picture of Australia PM Scott Morrison. /Xinhua

Gas and mining projects in Australia are emitting significantly more greenhouse gases than their operators promised, with an environmental group reporting Thursday that one pipeline was releasing 20 times the initial estimate.

During an 18-month investigation, researchers from the Australian Conservation Foundation found one in five fossil fuel companies reporting their emissions had exceeded the amount approved by the government.

One gas pipeline in the state of Queensland, operated by Origin Energy, has released 2,000 percent over the amount it predicted before the project was approved.

Meanwhile, Chevron's Gorgon LNG project off Australia's west coast was found to have emitted double the emissions initially promised. 

Chevron's draft environmental impact statement boasted the Gorgon project "will be amongst the most efficient LNG developments in the world" using a carbon capture and storage project to reduce its emissions to 4 million tons of carbon equivalent annually. 

The actual annual emissions reported between 2016-20 instead averaged 7.99 million tons, the equivalent of 1.7 million vehicles driven for a year, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.

To determine these figures, the research team examined the greenhouse gas emissions estimated by companies in their applications for government approval and compared these with the emissions reported to the clean energy regulator once the project was up and running.

These emissions include carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases.

As part of its investigation, the Australian Conservation Fund also looked at emissions from coal mines and found a similar pattern of underestimation.

AFP