As I have said many times before, I wonder what will happen to poor old little MEL's tenements if a Major will come knocking on the doors of Governments.
Enjoy it;
"NSW confirms CSG no-go policy
Wednesday, 20 April 2016
Haydn Black
NEW South Wales' government has reiterated it has no intention of allowing CSG developments on its North Coast after it compensated Metgasco $25 million dollars for scrapping its CSG project at Casino, leaving Santos the only company capable of establishing commercial production in the state.
Department of Planning and Environment caused anti-CSG activists to suffer a heart flutter this week, when the government’s Draft North Coast Regional Plan appeared to reveal that North Coast CSG reserves were again being considered as potential energy resources.
The plan states that the NSW Department of Industry is mapping coal and CSG resources in the region in order to inform future regional and local planning by providing updated information on the location of resources.
The report also states this information ‘can support expansion of the sector’.
It caused anti-CSG activists in the Northern Rivers region to ask why, if the NSW government had funded the buyback of CSG licences from the Queensland border to Grafton, CSG development was alive despite.
The NSW government was keen to hose that speculation down.
“The map in the draft regional plan simply identifies significant resources and industries across the area,” it said in a statement.
“It does not indicate that coal seam gas extraction will occur.”
Last year Metgasco was offered the cash offer to hand back PEL 13, PEL 16 and PEL 426, three permits that once contained the state’s largest 3P gas reserves.
In addition to the cancellation of the permits, Metgasco also terminated its legal action seeking compensation for the Rosella well and its stalled licences.
It ends any plans for a power project at Casino and several pipeline opportunities, and even an LNG project the company briefly considered in happier times.
It effectively leaves Santos’ project at Narrabri as the only real CSG initiative left in the south-eastern states.
Santos is now 100% in control of the Gunnedah Basin project, after utility EnergyAustralia withdrew from PEL 434, and both PEL 6 and PEL 427 in Clarence Moreton Basin.
In other NSW CSG news, Andrew Purcell has successfully purchased two CSG permits previously owned by Dart Energy.
Hunter Gas now holds 20% of PEL 456 and PEL 458 in the Gunnedah and Sydney Basins respectively.
Purcell acquired the leases from iGas, the UK-based company that took over Dart last year.
Santos is a partner in and the operator of PEL 456 in the Gunnedah Basin, where it has earned 15% and is moving to 50%.
AJ Lucas owns 80% in PEL 458.
No new CSG licences have been issued since 2011, and the government has spent more than $30 million buying as many as it can back.
Earlier this year AGL Energy announced it was not viable to develop the massive Gloucester CSG project near Newcastle, and that it will close down its Camden CSG facility early.
However, there is nothing to prevent CSG licences being re-issued in the future, short of political will.
The DOE said it is encouraging the community to make submissions on the draft plan until June 2."
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