Coal seam gas water could provide up to 25% of SEQ's water needs ...

People within the Toowoomba City Council told Toowoomba voters that drinking coal seam gas water would kill you.

But they were pushing the potable reuse barrow and coal seam gas water was another option to be ridiculed and buried.

Dalby will use coal seam gas water for its town water supply.

So will Chinchilla and Miles.

Now, with QGC's $8 billion project announcement, it looks like it could eventually provide up to 25% of SEQ's water needs.

Excerpt from Courier Mail:

Massive $8b gas plant project for Gladstone

3 February 2008

Growing global hunger for clean-burning natural gas has spurred plans for an $8 billion project in central Queensland expected to create more than 5000 jobs.

In what could be the largest liquefied gas development in Australia for more than a decade, joint venture partners Queensland Gas and UK-based BG Group announced yesterday that the project would be built near Gladstone.

Plans call for a processing plant, a 380km pipeline and development of coal seam gas fields, with the first export shipments expected by 2013.

The initiative, which is the fourth of its kind planned in the state, is tipped to yield up to 4 million metric tons of gas a year and to generate about $25 billion in revenue for Brisbane-based Queensland Gas over 20 years.

"This project puts Queensland's gas on the world stage and transforms QGC from an explorer and producer to a fully integrated energy company with outstanding growth potential," said managing director Richard Cottee.

World demand for natural gas is forecast to more than double by 2015.

Premier Anna Bligh welcomed news of the project, which she said would deliver a "royalties windfall," to the state, generate hundreds of permanent jobs and help in the battle against global warming.

"LNG (liquefied natural gas) is a key transition fuel as we move away from traditional fuels," Ms Bligh said.

"A gas-fired power station emits half the greenhouse gases of a coal-fired station.

"As well, coal seam gas contains only about 3 per cent carbon dioxide and the carbon dioxide produced can be pumped back into the coal seam as part of the gas extraction process."

An added benefit will be that part of the gas extraction process produces large volumes of underground water – equivalent to about a quarter of Brisbane's annual consumption – which can be used after further processing to help drought-stricken areas.

According to State Government mandated targets, energy retailers and other large electricity users have to source 13 per cent of their electricity from gas-fired generation.

That will rise to 18 per cent by 2020, a change expected to boost private sector development of the gas market.

BG Group announced on Friday that it had secured a $663 million stake in Queensland Gas, which was launched nine years ago and is now worth more than $2.5 billion.

See - QGC - massive $8 billion project.

Excerpt from Sydney Morning Herald:

Talking up the green credentials of natural gas, the Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh, said the project brought other economic opportunities to the state's south-east, because the production process involved significant extraction of water.

Queensland Gas estimates the project could yield as much as 20 per cent of what Brisbane consumes.

See - Anna Bligh discovers water.

Also see - Qld Gas Company - press release.