Rich seam of gas furyRichard Noone From: The Daily Telegraph...

Rich seam of gas fury
Richard Noone From: The Daily Telegraph April 25, 2011 12:00AM 1 comment
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PETROL companies are carving up huge slices of NSW, with exploration permits for coal seam gas leaving farmers fearful significant finds could ruin food production.

More than 70 per cent of the state is now covered by mineral and petroleum titles - a third of them for coal seam gas - prompting the NSW Farmers Association to call for a moratorium on applications until the State Government's regional land use reforms come into effect.

Once dubbed the ugly sister to conventional gas, Asian demand and skyrocketing local power prices has ignited an insatiable lust for coal seam gas - a greener alternative, proponents believe, to coal-fired power stations.

NSW imports about 96 per cent of the gas used in homes and power stations and big discoveries of coal seam gas in Queensland have prospectors confident of similar finds here.

But farmers are worried about the effects coal seam gas exploration and the controversial fracking method - where a slurry of water, sand and chemicals is injected at high pressure into rock formations to fracture them and release the gas - will have on aquifer levels and water contamination.


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Farmers Association mining taskforce chairwoman Fiona Simson said the growth of coal seam gas projects was "scary".

"Now we have 70 per cent of the state, much of the prime wheat growing areas, grain and beef now under threat from mining," she said.

"The [current] policy is so bad and the mining industry is booming [so] applications are being approved without any assessment of the land at all ... and without giving any right of reply to the landowner."

Sydney got its first taste of what farmers fear will turn their paddocks into pin cushions when Apollo Gas began exploratory drilling at St Peters under plans that were unknown to residents or Marrickville Council.

West Australian-based Red Sky Energy is one of the most aggressive companies, snapping up permits in the state's north covering in excess of 53,000sq km, equivalent to half the size of Tasmania.

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