Up to 5 million litres of water to be used for fracking drilling

Imperial Oil and Gas have come under fire after releasing an updated plan to controversially drill in the Beetaloo sub-basin during the wet season and use millions of litres of water.

Five million litres of water could be used in the “worst case scenario” for drilling starting next month in the Beetaloo sub-basin.

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Imperial Oil and Gas have come under fire after releasing an updated plan to controversially drill in the Beetaloo sub-basin during the wet season and use millions of litres of water.

The gas giant submitted a revised drilling environmental management plan which has been changed to incorporate management requirements for wet season fracking operations.

Protect Country Alliance spokesperson Lauren Mellor condemned plans to drill as soon as next month and said fracking during the wet season presents the risk of toxic waste spreading during heavy rain.

“The revision by Imperial to propose that they will drill and frack throughout the wet season just shows the slapdash nature of these types of environmental management planning,” she said.

Although not obliged to pay cash compensation for land disturbance, Imperial Oil & Gas will be making a one off payment of $50 per hectare for seismic disturbance to a local Aboriginal land trust.

They will also pay $100 per hectare for “more permanent” well pad and access track disturbance.

“Any compensation payments are likely to be incredibly small yet the concentrated disturbance for clearing those areas of land will be significant for people,” Ms Mellor said.

Ms Mellor also said it is also disturbing that the company plans to use 2.5 million litres of water for drilling activities with five million litres anticipated to be used in the “worst case scenario”.

“The region where Imperial are proposing to drill and frack and ultimately build a gas field is a region that has very recently experienced prolonged drought,” she said.

“There are pastoralists who are destocking their properties because of the lack of water available and yet these companies are being approved for new water intensive activities …”

A spokesman from Imperial Oil & Gas said they expect to complete drilling before material rainfall commences.

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“While Empire Energy expects drilling operations to be completed sometime after the date of the Wet Season, as stated in the petroleum regulations, the Company expects to have completed drilling operations before material rainfall commences,” they said.

“The operations team has decided to add some sensible provisions to further ensure protection of the local environment for if heavy rains commence early. These extra provisions are the basis for our revised Environment Management Plan.”