12th August 2010
Our Coast too Precious to Risk –No Go Area for Gas
EXPLORATORY drilling for natural gas is planned to begin 55 kilometres off Newcastle in October. Greens candidate for Paterson, Jan Davis is concerned that this will be the first step in the dangerous offshore exploration saga that ended so tragically in the Gulf of Mexico a few short weeks ago.
“The potential risk of leaks and spills from exploration drilling and the construction of platforms and pipelines, as well as the extra ship journeys pose a very real danger to the marine environment. Coastal communities, fishing and tourism operators must also be concerned,” Jan Davis said.
Advent Energy holds the state's only offshore petroleum licence to explore an 8100 square kilometre area from Wollongong to Newcastle. Gas reserves in the area are estimated at 13.2 trillion cubic feet. It's a resource valued at $50 billion. The company has contracted the rig Ocean Patriot to drill off Newcastle in October.
“Both State and Federal Governments should have said no to this new venture. Communities will want answers, for instance, what is the scale of drilling ultimately envisaged? How close will drilling platforms be to the shore? Where would the gassification processing be done? How will the end product be transferred, by ship, by pipeline?
“We believe that the process to extract gas from under the seabed is done by actually drilling into the undersea coal deposits, then igniting the coal by setting off explosions, which raises the temperature to 1200, and converts coal to gas.
“This procedure poses risks, and experimenting with this process offshore has been rejected by other countries. The Greens have run a strong community campaign against this project, especially on the Central Coast, because it places mining profits ahead of protecting marine ecology and the tourism potential of the NSW coast.
“History shows that in NSW an exploration licence is merely the first step in the full-blown mining operation. There has only been a rejection on one coal mine on environmental grounds, and that was one of the smallest Australian owned proposals.
“Once the multi-nationals are involved in exploration, governments of both Federal and State origins find it hard to say no. The argument that it is cleaner is spurious when it is coal that is being used first of all, but drilling into the ocean seabed so close to our coastline is not sustainable. We need an exploration exclusion zone around the coast,” Jan concluded.
CONTACT Jan Davis 0417 422 738 jandavis@swiftdsl.com.au