Pilliga Gas Field - The Real Story

A lone gas pump labours with an unending mechanical rhythm. Coal-bed methane gas is shot out in spurts and drifts away into the air. Pools of black, saline water lie about the cleared site, clogging up a once beautiful bushland setting.

There are many gas exploration sites in the Pilliga, though only one or two have ever revealed any gas worth tapping. Does this give you the impression that we have an energy source under the sands of the Pilliga that has national significance? That is what the Department of Mineral Resources would have us believe.

The Resource and Conservation Division of the Department of Urban Affairs and Planning have stated, "the Department of Mineral Resources has provided estimates that the region could contain up to 35 trillion cubic feet of gas resource. (As a comparison, current gas consumption Australia wide is about 1 trillion cubic feet of gas per year)."

This sounds huge, but is this the reality? DMR justify their interest in the area by saying that the exploration license in the Pilliga area (which includes the Nature Reserve and all the state forests of the Pilliga) is the largest and most important potential energy site in NSW. This may be true, as there is little going on elsewhere.

Surely seeing is believing, but DMR have yet to provide substantive proof of these claims. In fact, in a loop-hole in the public accountability process, DMR are not even required to substantiate claims regarding gas exploration licenses. The Western Regional Assessments are taking place at the moment and the Pilliga area is the first testing ground for this process in the west. DMR are currently using funds, supplied by the State government, to undertake assessments of energy potential of this area, an area under an old exploration license, so one could reasonably argue that this is extra funds for what is core agency business. They are generating further projects to maintain their interest in the area, and are currently doing a "Gravity survey" which is another technique for broadscale assessments of energy potential. While other agencies have generated data and released them as a result of the interim phase of the assessment process, there as yet are no results from DMR.

There is another factor of concern to DMR, yes, you guessed it, the fear of new national parks. The Pilliga (and other areas) have areas of identified high conservation value and one of the outcomes of the regional assessment will be to establish a more comprehensive reserve system in the bioregion. It is an important outcome that new reserves be established as the Brigalow Belt South bioregion is the fourth largest bioregion in Australia, yet protected lands account for just over 2% of its area. Most vegetation types are not protected and the Pilliga has large expanses of unprotected habitat. The Pilliga is the largest temperate woodland remnant in Australia and a center for regional biodiversity.

The DMR need a project which is "bigger than Ben Hur" to justify there own existence at a time when future coal and gas options are hard to find. They recently completed a coal assessment of the western areas of NSW and found that coal deposits west of Gunnedah were uneconomic to mine and the quality was poor. Millions of dollars were spent during this large-scale assessment. With the results of gas exploration from the Pilliga looking bleak, there must be some concern within the upper eschelons of the DMR, though they still have the minerals potential card to play. The Pilliga is covered with an eroded sandstone topsoil potentially containing a large variety of minerals and elements. Whether its economic is another question, though we may just find Kryptonite - if we look hard enough!

 

24/2/01

David Paull

Western Woodlands Project


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