Cecil Plains farmer’s warning after gas company experience
NEWS this month that Arrow Energy’s $10 billion Surat Gas Project was finally going ahead was met with fanfare from businesses and government alike. But not everyone is happy.
Toowoomba
Don't miss out on the headlines from Toowoomba. Followed categories will be added to My News.
NEWS this month that Arrow Energy's $10 billion Surat Gas Project was finally going ahead was met with fanfare from businesses and government alike.
But on the Cecil Plains where coal seam gas wells will eventually be built in the project's later stages, some are not happy.
Cecil Plains farmer Russell Bennie's dealings with Arrow began when he bought a property neighbouring his parents' farm in 2010.
He said while initially open-minded about the prospect of dealing with Arrow - there was a plugged and abandoned exploration well on the property - his dealings with Arrow staff made him reconsider.
"We've been dealing with these guys from the get-go. Back in the very early days, when we were open to the idea of working in co-operation and this lovely coexistence notion, their staff came out and basically wanted to look at the water bores," he said.
But he said their cavalier attitude towards the potential impact their operations would have on his bores meant "alarm bells started to ring".
A stalemate later developed between Mr Bennie and Arrow over the unrehabilitated well site on his property, which remains to this day.
On the company's future expansion into Cecil Plains, he urged caution for other landholders who were thinking of signing a Conduct and Compensation Agreement with Arrow.
"You've got to take a stand and decide what you will and won't be prepared to do," he said.
"Legally - I would urge caution at this point to any landholder who signs a CCA.
"(They) want landholders to consent by signing a CCA.
"I would suggest to those farmers very strongly they would be in the long term potentially much better off by selling - and I wouldn't sell cheap either.
"Sell for whatever money you want, pick a number, because they're good for it.
"And if they want to be there, they can buy it for whatever you want to sell for.
"Don't take the legal risk for hosting their operations."
Mr Bennie also took aim at former Groom MP Ian Macfarlane, who in 2013 as shadow resources minister stood on the back of a truck in front of a crowd of farmers in Cecil Plains and said: "Our policy is that you don't extract coal seam gas and you certainly don't mine this sorta country unless the farmer says you can."
Now the CEO of the Queensland Resources Council, Mr Macfarlane last week welcomed news the project was going ahead.
"I was at the meeting when he said that and I recall him saying that," Mr Bennie said.
"As soon as he joined the Queensland Resources Council it was clear that he'd sold out."
But Mr Macfarlane said his position hadn't changed.
"Gas companies should only go onto properties where they've reached agreements with farmers," he said.
"I don't know of any gas company who has taken any farmer to court to gain access to land.
"Farmers made more money out of coal seam gas than the Queensland Government did in royalties in the first five years of the industry (in Queensland).
"And individual farmers are earning millions - literally millions - that's why gas companies have been able to arrive at agreements with them and that's why the policy hasn't changed."
The Surat Gas Project, across all its phases, stretches from south of Wandoan on the Western Downs, across to Chinchilla and Dalby, and down to Cecil Plains in the Toowoomba region.
An Arrow spokesman said the phase one of the project would begin with an expansion north and south of the company's current operational areas at its Daandine and Tipton fields, 25km north west and 30km south west of Dalby respectively.
It is expected the first phase will generate 200 plus construction jobs, rising to 800 over the course of the entire project.
But development of the Cecil Plains area is still some way off.
"Development around Cecil Plains is not part of this development phase and will occur in subsequent project phases," the spokesman said.
"Planning for these subsequent phases continues and Arrow will seek shareholder investment for these areas once the engineering definition is complete."
The spokesman said well numbers and locations would be settled as field development plans matured.
"Uniquely, Arrow seeks landholder input to field development plans to incorporate landholders' knowledge, and that of their neighbours, in a process it calls area wide planning (AWP)," he said.
"This allows Arrow to understand landholder constraints and collect key information such as overland flow patterns.
"It leads to identification of the best overall layout of well pads and gathering infrastructure which is then agreed formally through a conduct and compensation agreement between Arrow and each landholder.
"AWP typically occurs around two years prior to development."
Arrow has been undertaking AWP with landholders in the areas of initial development, and as the project progresses, AWP will be rolled out across Arrow's tenure areas.