By Kim LyellPosted 31 minutes ago * Map: Kogan 4406A company...

By Kim Lyell

Posted 31 minutes ago

* Map: Kogan 4406

A company operating a pilot underground coal gasification (UCG) project at Kogan on Queensland's Darling Downs says the industry should not be judged on one incident.

Earlier this month, the State Government put the Cougar Energy UCG project near Kingaroy, in southern Queensland, on hold after a contamination scare in bore water on the site.

Carbon Energy (CE) is an off-shoot of a CSIRO research project and plans to use gas from the Kogan project to create clean energy.

The State Government has asked CE to undertake an environmental evaluation after the contamination scare at the Cougar Energy plant.

CE says it has full confidence in the technology it is using in its UCG project at Kogan

Managing director Andrew Dash says says no problems have been detected at its site.

"The processes and procedures that we use are actually a step change in the way underground coal gasification has been done anywhere in the world," he said.

"We have very sophisticated modelling tools and processes for making sure that we extract the energy efficiently and in an environmentally responsible manner.

"Most of the data we're compiling is information that we've already provided to the department and so far it's demonstrating that we have a very efficient and environmentally sound operation - entirely consistent with what we would expect for an operation of this kind."