Sydney test site attracts global miners 27 March 2011
Sydneysiders may soon be waking to the sound of drills now that a centrally-located site has drawn interest from global mining corporations. Nathan Coates reports.
Poster for the Gasland documentary which revealed the impact of hydraulic fracturing in the US
Despite local opposition, a Sydney site is attracting international attention from mining companies looking to test drill for coal-seem gas (CSG).
A site in Alexandria/St Peters is among several exploration licenses granted to Macquarie Energy Pty Ltd by the State Labour Government.
Last Saturday demonstrators took to the streets to protest CSG mining throughout NSW with approximately 1250 people attending the rally at Martin Place, Sydney.
“Not in my backyard” and “Don’t frack with mother nature” placards were displayed, accompanied by the NSW Greens message, “No Coal-Seam Gas”.
Inner city resident and protester, Jane Ward, said: “Australians would abhor the idea that anyone can come in and mine under their house and land and then take [the gas] away.”
Hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as fracking, and the possibility of damage to house and land prices, are central reasons for opposition to coal-seam gas extraction.
Fracking is a mining operation that expands existing underground formations through the injection of fluid and aims to increase the speed of resource retrieval.
CSG mining commonly employs the fracking method and it has attracted criticism due to water contamination fears.
Reporter Ian Urbina, in an article published by the New York Times on March 1, wrote of fracking: “energy companies faced mounting criticism over an extraction process that involves pumping millions of gallons of water into the ground for each well and can leave significant amounts of hazardous contaminants in the water that comes back to the surface.”
In November last year, Managing Director of Apollo Gas Ltd (the then Macquarie Energy holding company), Andrew Mayo, commented on fracking in Sydney, saying: “Based on all of our geological knowledge to date, we would definitely not be using the fracking technique.”
On February 8 this year, Multinational Corporation, Dart Energy Ltd, completed their acquisition of Apollo Gas.
According to their website, Dart, is “a company focused on the development of coal bed methane in Australia [and other countries].”
In a statement to the ASX, Dart CEO, Simon Potter, said: “Our 2011 drilling campaign in Australia will see work across the Apollo portfolio, and the first well has already been [started]”.
Dart is an aggressive CSG mining company, far larger than Apollo, with significant global assets and working capital.
On Monday, Clover Moore MP, Lord Mayor of Sydney, said in an email response: “I have written to the Premier to call for an independent investigation into the full environmental and social impacts of coal seam gas exploration and extraction. The City of Sydney is opposed to pursuing coal seam gas as an energy source”.
Sydney City Council wants to reduce Sydney’s greenhouse gas emissions by 70 per cent before 2030. They cite natural gas and agricultural waste as preferred energy engine power sources.
Clover Moore’s trigeneration scheme, or local network of gas-fired engines, is aimed at replacing Sydney’s dependency on coal-fired electricity.
Sydney City Council is not the only stakeholder maintaining a view that Sydney should abandon the coal industry entirely.
Greens MLC, Cate Faehrmann, said: “After everything I’ve seen and am seeing increasingly, in terms of coal-seam gas, I don’t think we should go down the path of supporting this [CSG] industry.”
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