Future of coal seam gas in inner west questioned as gas companies merge

Questions are being raised about Coal Seam Gas exploration in Inner Western Sydney after community group Stop CSG Sydney held a protest last week to lobby the government to cancel a CSG license for the area.

The issue was flagged last week by community the group who has been carefully watching gas company Dart, who owns the license, after it announced plans to merge with UK company IGas.

Dart’s license was effectively null and void after the O’Farell Government introduced a CSG exclusion zone last year, which prevented the company from exercising the terms of its license. The company was worth more than 1 billion four years ago, now it is worth only 50 million, figures believed to be influential in the company’s move to merge with the larger UK operation.

Members of Stop CSG Sydney believe the NSW Government should cancel the license, even though it is unusable, in order to safeguard against the prospect of the company selling the license on to another energy company and posing a risk down the track.

Pip Hinman of Stop CSG Sydney believes she has joined the dots and is worried about the long-term risks associated with a failure of the government to cancel the license.

“We cannot understand why you would want to sell a license which you can’t drill with, to a UK company that says it doesn’t want to drill outside the UK, unless you want to sell it further down the track to a bigger company when political conditions become more favorable.”

“Since AGL, which is wanting to expand, is in the Camden bordering the area of Dart’s license, I would think that would make sense. If you want to concentrate on the UK, you’d try and sell Australian assets to someone who is eager to expand their operations nearby.”

Hinman’s speculation on the matter is not the only thing the group are flagging and asking questions about. She is also alarmed by early research into the effects of CSG sites on local areas.

“The fracking mixture is commercial in confidence, so we are not allowed to know the exact ingredients, but we know it brings up radio nuclei which means people are being exposed to radiation.”

Marrickville Greens Councilor Sylvie Ellsmore, believes the NSW Government has to cancel the license because of the lack of parliamentary transparency on the issue.

“There shouldn’t be the danger is if the license is kept on foot and the state government is currently going through a series of proposals to make it easier for miners to drill. If they’re really keen to stop CSG development in urban areas, the cancellation of the license is an imperative.

“The local community movement has won significant concessions from the state government so far like the exclusion zone. From the Greens point of view we’re trying to move legislation to make it impossible to explore and extract coal seam gas now and into the future.

“Its great we’ve got the protection of the exclusion zone in the short term; the long term goal is to make sure the minister doesn’t have the license to renew drilling in a built up urban areas.”

NSW Minister for Resources and Energy, Anthony John Roberts, did not reply to Cityhub’s enquiries in time for print.