crikey

Crikey -tips and rumours 28th May.

CSG questions. Shareholders of beleagured coal seam gas explorer Metgasco reckon NSW Energy Minister Anthony Roberts has some pointed questions to answer after he summarily suspended the company’s licence to drill for conventional gas from the Rosella prospect, in the state’s north, which was subject of a successful community blockade at Bentley.

The minister, while referring Metgasco to ICAC (and despite having his own well-publicised issues in that forum), suspended the exploration licence on May 15 ostensibly because the company “misled the public over its drilling operation … by saying it was seeking a less controversial type of gas” and had “not undertaken genuine community consultation”. Regardless of the strength of these claims (it is inconceivable Roberts’ department, the NSW Office of CSG, was unaware of the type of gas Metgasco was targeting, given its plans were outlined six months earlier), section 22 (vi) of the Petroleum (Onshore) Act 1991 states that before cancelling or suspending operations under a title, the minister must serve written notice of the grounds of the proposed cancellation or suspension and:

“… give the holder of the title reasonable opportunity to make representations with respect to the proposed cancellation or suspension [and] take any such representations into consideration”.

Given Roberts only sent an email to Metgasco at 4pm the afternoon before the morning’s announcement?—?and the CEO Peter Henderson was unaware of it until he opened the email at 7pm that evening, effectively getting no opportunity to respond at all?—? Crikey’s informant wonders whether the minister is in flagrant breach of the very legislation he is responsible for administering?