Qld government backs coal seam gas water ...
1 May 2008
Hon. AM BLIGH (South Brisbane—ALP) (Premier) (9.42 am): Queensland’s rapidly developing seam gas industry has been underpinned by our government’s innovative gas scheme and it continues to prosper. This is clearly evidenced by yesterday’s announcement from British energy giant British Gas of its unsolicited $13 billion takeover bid for Origin Energy - Australia’s second biggest energy retailer. Origin is reported to have Queensland’s largest coal seam methane reserves.
Much of the recent growth in the state’s gas industry has occurred in the Surat Basin, including new wells developed by Arrow Energy and the Queensland Gas Company. In the Surat Basin alone there are five wells in operation, three under construction and another eight in the planning stage. The Surat Basin is set to rival the Bowen Basin as the state’s economic powerhouse. Our coal seam gas industry is going full steam ahead.
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Gas produces half the emissions of coal-fired energy generation and it is a vital way forward while emerging clean coal technologies are being developed and renewable energy sources are being implemented. By investing in coal seam gas, we are ensuring a brighter future for Surat Basin towns like Dalby, Miles and Chinchilla. These are communities that have done it tough with drought over the last decade. We are giving these communities jobs and job security.
Another offshoot of the coal seam gas process is the possibility of massive amounts of water being available that is ideally suited for power stations, agricultural and future mining purposes. If there is one thing we have learnt in the last five years it is that water is precious. It is liquid gold and we cannot waste any of it. But we need to be sure that issues such as appropriate use of the water are worked through.
Already Dalby is developing reverse osmosis treatment facilities to use coal seam gas water in its town supplies. If the coal seam water can be treated effectively and transported efficiently, there is the possibility that it could be used for irrigation, industrial and domestic purposes right across this basin.
Coal seam gas projects have already yielded about $1 billion worth of development across the state, and we have around 3,000 megawatts of gas-fired generation on the drawing board. With increasing drivers for more greenhouse friendly fuels, including a national emissions trading scheme by 2010, the long-term prospects for Queensland’s coal seam gas industry are extremely positive.
The potential benefits to this state from a liquefied natural gas industry are immense, including substantially increased export revenue and royalties. To exemplify these benefits.
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By 2030 it is predicted that the Surat energy resources province will provide additional gross regional product of more than $10 billion per annum. It is also predicted by that year that it could be creating an extra 16,000 full-time jobs. We also anticipate that by 2030 the population in the Surat energy resources province—taking in a rectangular area from Toowoomba past Roma, south to the New South Wales border and north to almost Theodore—is predicted to reach 260,000.
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See - Hansard - 1 May 2008 - Page 7.
posted by Concerned Ratepayer at 7:26 AM
2 Comments:
Opposition comments:
Waste Water
Mr HOBBS (Warrego—NPA) (6.28 pm): I want to talk tonight about the use of waste water from coal seam gas wells. There is enormous coal seam gas development on the Darling Downs and in the Maranoa region. This was mentioned when debating a previous bill.
Queensland Gas, Santos, Origin, Arrow Energy, Link Energy, Sunshine Gas and a lot of other companies are actually out there and they have this enormous resource that we have not been able to utilise properly.
Queensland Gas Managing Director, Richard Cottee, is keen to utilise this water. I have spoken to him about this on other occasions. I have heard him on radio and TV news saying the same thing.
Towns like Miles, Chinchilla, Dalby and Toowoomba certainly need further water supplies. Toowoomba is probably facing the most serious water supply problem. It has about 90,000 people using about 130 litres per day each. That is their residential use. So we are looking at roughly 12 megalitres being used daily.
I propose that the Santos Moonie to Brisbane oil pipeline that is to be decommissioned be used to pipe water to Toowoomba as a short-term measure. That would be of enormous benefit to my region particularly, because we have this water that has to go somewhere. Presently it is just evaporating.
It is not being used properly. So this is one way that we can do something with this water.
The Moonie to Brisbane pipeline is 300 kilometres long. The distance from Moonie to Toowoomba, roughly where the gas is—even from the Chinchilla area—is about 167 kilometres. The pipe is small in water-carrying terms; it is 27.3 centimetres wide. The current problems with the pipe are
basically at the Brisbane end of the pipe, and members can probably imagine why. The pipe goes from Moonie to Toowoomba and then 2,000 feet downhill to Brisbane. I am sure there are pressure reductions on the way down and so forth, but at the end of the day there certainly would be a lot more pressure down at the Brisbane end of the pipeline than there would be at the Toowoomba end of the pipeline. So even though the pipeline is very old, there would not be any great problem in using it to pipe water.
We need to undertake a detailed assessment. The pipe could carry 1 to 1.3 megalitres a day. At 130 litres per person per day that would probably supply between 8,000 and 9,000 people in Toowoomba for their residential use. The total supply for residential use would be along the lines of, say, 12 megalitres a day. Although that would not fix the problem, it would certainly help.
I call on the state government to set up a working group to assess the viability of using the pipeline to provide water to Toowoomba. In my early discussions with Santos they have indicated that they wish to decommission the pipeline. The pipeline will stay in the ground. They would not rule out any future use for that pipeline. They are happy to talk to people about it. Santos would not be interested in using the pipeline to pump water, but they would certainly be happy if somebody else did that.
10:49 AM, May 02, 2008
We only need the pipeline to come to Toowoomba and that water could be blended with our water and it would be perfectly safe for us all to drink or use.
It would seem that there is a lot of it and it would get us through this terrible drought.
It will rain one day.
The people with the oil pipeline in their back yards beyond Toowoomba would then be able to apply to have their land back.
9:08 AM, May 03, 2008
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