ENERGY giant Santos has refused to rule out one day expanding its coal seam gas operations onto the famed black soils of the Liverpool Plains.
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Santos NSW general manager Peter Mitchley told The Leader this week that science, not “whims”, would determine where extraction occurred.
The company holds, or has an interest in, several petroleum exploration licences (PELs) spanning some of the country’s most productive farmland.
One such licence, PEL 1, which was granted in 1993 and covers 5400 square kilometres of land south-east of Gunnedah, is due to expire next week.
Santos received approval in 2010 for a four-well coal seam gas pilot exploration project at the property Kahlua, which has since been mothballed.
Mr Mitchley said while the company was focused on developing its $2 billion Narrabri Gas Project, it would seek to renew the licence.
He said it would be “absurd” for the company to quarantine the black soils from development, if science proved agriculture would not be impacted.
“It doesn’t make logical sense to me,” he said. “Why would we take a position against the science and go ‘I still think it’s not good enough’?
“The answer lies in the science. I don’t think the answer lies in the sterilisation on the back of whims.”
Tamworth MP Kevin Anderson is lobbying to have prime agricultural land on the Liverpool Plains excluded from any mining or coal seam gas development.
“My position is clear that we should not have mining or coal seam gas on blacksoil plains,” he said. “Prime agricultural land, and particularly black soil on the Liverpool Plains, is very unique in terms of its biophysical make-up.”
Mr Anderson said he made his case directly to NSW Energy Minister Anthony Roberts in a “productive” meeting following the release of the state’s gas plan last year.
“We were looking at options for those companies upon renewal to relinquish 15 per cent of their PELs and I was asking Santos to relinquish a portion of those PELs that sit over black soil,” he said.
But Mr Mitchley said there was no reason gas developments should not proceed as long as they passed the state’s planning approvals process.
“I don’t see why some other person, if the science is in, should preclude a farmer from working with us,” he said.
