Multinational gas company Dart Energy met with residents from St Peters on Monday June 6 to discuss the company’s plans to do exploratory coal seam gas drilling in Sydney’s inner-west before the end of the year.
Dart have plans to drill at a now vacant industrial site in St Peters close to residential properties and Sydney Park. The exploration licence (PEL 463 – view map) held by Dart covers not only St Peters but an area of 2392 square kilometeres, encompassing most of metropolitan and suburban Sydney.
Representatives from Sydney Residents Against Coal Seam Gas met with Dart Energy’s Jason Needham (NSW Exploration Manager) and Robbert de Weijer (Country Manager Australia).
Needham and de Weijer said that while the government’s 60-day CSG moratorium has meant the company required some clarification regarding the implications for their planned drilling in St Peters, they intended to commence exploration at the site after September this year.
Sites at Putty, Williamtown (near Newcastle) and Catherine Hill Bay would also see exploratory drilling commence around the same time. Speaking to a community forum in Putty, Needham told locals: “We have seven licences in seven areas in NSW and we are doing activities in all seven this year.”
Needham explained that CSG exploration “can tell you gas is present and in what composition, but not if it is commercially viable.”
de Weijer confirmed that if CSG at St Peters was found to be commercially viable and appropriate licences were granted, the site would be used for production.
Needham and de Weijer said it was “really unlikely” that the controversial CSG extraction technique of hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracking’, would be used.
“We’ve got no plans to frack but you can’t rule it out,” said Needham.
It was likely that if the St Peters site reached production phase, an extraction technique known as horizontal in-seam drilling would be used.
“[With] horizontal in-seam drilling you can have a much larger drill area with one well head,” said Needham.
As CSG development is expanded across NSW and QLD, water usage and waste water produced by projects is a key concern for many residents and environmental groups.
Needham said that the amount of water used during production “depends on scope of drilling, but for a single in-seam lateral, water use would be in the order of 1000L a day during the peak, which is at the start of production.”
In the case of potential coal seam gas production in St Peters, waste water would be trucked off site and treated at a reverse osmosis plant.
If the St Peters project does reach production, de Weijer told the meeting: “Production could be 5-10 years, some [coal seam gas] projects in the Surat Basin go for 15 years.”
Dart is also currently considering sites near Sydney’s Eastern Creek for further CSG exploration.
“Our focus is the NSW domestic market. Gas demand will triple over next 20 years. We see a good market domestically,” de Weijer said of Dart’s plans in NSW.
The proposal to drill in St Peters has been criticised by the Greens. Mining spokesperson Jeremy Buckingham told SMH on 4 June: “I believe the industry is not capable of integrating into urban environments.”
Hundreds of local residents are also concerned and have formed community action group Sydney Residents Against Coal Seam Gas in response to Dart’s coal seam gas proposal in their area.
If you are concerned about coal seam gas, get involved with you local community group.
Map from Dart of Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL) 463 which covers Sydney (click for larger view):
Kate can you please ask the Sydney Residents Against Coal Seam Gas to contact me at the address provided above. By having ONLY a FB address, they are locking people out. This is not nice.
Sydney Residents Against Coal Seam Gas is now known as Stop CSG Sydney, they have a website here: http://www.nogasmininginsydney.com/
And in addition to the Facebook group, that they use to share information, can be contacted via email: info@nogasmininginsydney.com
Or post: Stop CSG Sydney, PO Box 235, St Peters NSW 2044
They are not locking any one out of participation and I’m sure they’d be happy to hear from you.