Uni drops Santos name from city campus
Adelaide University is dropping the name of SA’s top company from two buildings, six months after staff and students campaigned for a change.
Adelaide University has dropped the Santos name from its engineering building more than 20 years after it was built as part of a $25 million sponsorship deal.
InDaily can reveal that the university has decided to rename the Santos Petroleum Engineering Building to the “Sustainable Energy Futures Building”.
Deputy Vice Chancellor Jessica Gallagher said the decision was made “following careful consideration and prior consultation with Santos”.
“Adelaide University has decided to rename the Santos Petroleum Engineering Building, as the Santos naming agreement has concluded and the previous name no longer reflected the teaching and research programmes active in this building,” Gallagher said.
“We are currently working through the process to change the signage.”
Santos is the state’s top company according to InDaily’s South Australian Business Index, worth around $23.48 billion and employing 1100 South Australians across Adelaide, Moomba, Port Bonython and Whyalla.
Since 2017, the oil and gas giant’s valuation has increased by $15.6 billion.
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The name change comes after more than 600 staff and students signed an open letter in April calling for Santos’ name to be dropped, the move led by the Conservation Council and Adelaide University researcher Nicholas Collins.
“To my knowledge, this is the only Adelaide University building named after a company. Other buildings are named after Nobel Laureates, famous explorers and other inspiring luminaries,” Collins said.
Santos declined to comment on the name change.
While Adelaide University student and Dump Santos campaigner Darcey McNamara said staff and students involved in the campaign were celebrating the name change today.
“Adelaide University is the latest in a growing list of institutions that have dumped Santos sponsorship due to concerns about climate change, including the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, Tennis Australia, Darwin Festival, and more,” McNamara said.
The Conservation Council continues to call for Santos to also be dropped from the Tour Down Under, McNamara saying it was “bizarre that a polluting gas company sponsors a clean, green cycling race”.
The Santos Petroleum Engineering Building cost about $10 million to build in 2002, according to a sponsorship agreement released under Freedom of Information and shared with InDaily.
The school no longer exists – petroleum engineering courses falling under the new university’s engineering department – and the sponsorship period has expired.
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Gallagher said the new name reflected the university being “a global leader in sustainable energy teaching and research”.
“Our strengths are amplified through continuing collaboration with government, global institutions and industry partners, including Santos, to create opportunities for students and to support research that can benefit our society into the future.”
Another building, a lecture theatre on the city campus, also bore the Santos name, and Gallagher said “The university is also removing Santos naming from a teaching space in the former Graduate School of Management, which also relates to older agreements and past building use”.
However, Gallagher said Santos “remains a partner” of Adelaide University.
“Our engagement spans student opportunities, including work integrated learning and graduate career pathways, as well as research collaboration,” Gallagher said.
“These activities sit within our broader work with the mining and energy sectors to advance knowledge and support industry transition for South Australia and beyond, including in areas such as decarbonisation, carbon capture and storage, energy efficiency and addressing sustainability challenges.”
Since 2023, Santos has invested more than $690 million in its Climate Transition Action Plan, including opening Australia’s first large-scale carbon capture storage plant in Moomba, which has stored about 2.3 million tonnes of CO2.
In a May climate update, Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher said the Moomba Carbon Capture and Storage project in the Cooper Basin helped Santos meet its 2030 emissions reduction target five years ahead of schedule.
Gallagher said carbon capture storage – which separates CO2 from industrial gases and traps it – was an “extraordinary opportunity” for the company and Australia.
The company has said the stored emissions were equivalent to taking 826,000 cars off South Australian roads.
SA Greens MLC Melanie Selwood said the university had “listened to the community”, claiming Santos’ projects continued to harm the environment and contribute to climate change.
“Our major institutions and events should not be laundering the image of dirty fossil fuels,” Selwood said.
SA Tourism Commission Chief Executive Emma Terry told SA Parliament last week that Santos was “locked in for the foreseeable future as our naming rights partner” and the Tourism Commission was “proud to have them”.
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