Santos: Farmers fear One Nation is set to capitalise on CSG
THE state’s CSG wars have exploded back to life as Santos prepares to extract gas in northern NSW despite opposition from farmers who say the issue may give One Nation a foothold.
NSW
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THE state’s CSG wars have exploded back to life as Santos prepares to extract gas in northern NSW despite opposition from farmers who say the issue may give One Nation a foothold.
Santos has lodged plans to drill up to 850 coal seam gas wells across about 1000ha of Pilliga State Forest, south of Narrabri — unlocking half of NSW’s gas needs over the next 20 years and generating $1.2 billion in royalties for the state government. It could also create hundreds of jobs for regional and rural NSW.
“Natural gas has a vital role to play in delivering energy security, while having the additional benefit of being 50 per cent cleaner than coal, resulting in a significant reduction in carbon emissions,” Santos said.
NSW’s CSG industry has been on hold since 2014 over concern about the mining method and blockades by angry landowners.
A major review by Chief Scientist Mary O’Kane found risks associated with CSG are “manageable” and the state government is slowly opening the industry back up amid fears about looming gas shortages.
But Jeff Carolan, who farms cotton 40km west of Narrabri, said: “We’re determined to oppose this project with everything we have left.”
Alistair Donaldson, whose farm is 20km southeast of the proposed gas field, is concerned about the impact on water supplies and believes One Nation, which opposes the mining method, could capitalise on local anger.
“One Nation is anti-CSG so there’s likely to be some real political implications there,” Mr Donaldson said.
NSW gets 95 per cent of its gas from Victoria and South Australia, with the remainder produced from AGL’s coal seam gas wells around Camden.
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Santos warned NSW will be reliant on Victoria for gas as Queensland ramps up overseas exports later this year. “This reliance on a single supply source may pose significant security of supply risk in the event of an interruption, as occurred in 1998 when there was an event at the Longford gas plant in Victoria that resulted in severe gas shortages across the state,” Santos said.
An environmental-impact statement for Santos’ Narrabri Gas Project, published yesterday, confirmed the company will not use the controversial “fracking” technique commonly used in CSG mining.
It also insisted the gas it is targeting is separated from local water supplies by between 250m and 400m of “relatively impervious rock”, saying that “allows for the extraction of gas without adversely impacting water resources”.
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