CSG extraction v. coal gasification - the latest battleground ...
Excerpt from The Australian:
State lets off steam in coal gasification plans
7 August 2008
The Queensland Government appears to be putting the brakes on its emerging coal gasification industry as it considers environmental concerns and whether the industry can co-exist with plans for a $20 billion LNG export industry.
Queensland's coal fields have attracted an investment bonanza in recent years as companies including Santos and Queensland Gas Company plan to use coal seam methane to develop a massive new LNG export industry, and other firms such as Linc Energy continue long-standing efforts to commercialise the entirely different coal gasification technology, which burns coal deep underground to extract a gas that can be liquefied into diesel and aviation fuel.
Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson has hailed both CSM and coal gasification as crucial to Australia's future energy security.
But the Queensland Government has realised that in several cases it has issued rights over the same tenements to companies pursuing each of the technologies -- even though most say they are incompatible because the coal gasification process burns the methane that the CSM producers are seeking to extract.
And the Government now believes that in the long run the market will support the full-scale development of only one of the technologies, with cost and greenhouse emission levels from the production process the deciding factors.
"I expect both will develop until the market works out which one is most cost effective, but at the end of the day only one of these technologies will emerge as the winner on cost and greenhouse grounds," Queensland Climate Change Minister Andrew McNamara told The Australian.
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See - State lets off steam in coal gasification plans.
posted by Concerned Ratepayer at 6:58 PM
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Aug 07, 2008 (The Australian - ABIX via COMTEX) -- LNCGY -- Australian-listed Linc Energy is a proponent of coal gasification technology in Queensland. However, this method has come under a cloud after the State Government appeared to favour the rival coalbed methane sector instead. Mines and Energy Minister Geoff Wilson has had to retract an earlier statement in which a three-year ban on the granting of any licences for coal gasification was mentioned. Linc's stock still fell $A0.45 on 7 August 2008 to close at $A2.98. It is also involved in a legal case with coalbed methane company Queensland Gas over access to land in the Surat Basin.
1:54 PM, August 08, 2008
Daily Telegraph:
Miners to light protest
August 08, 2008
A mass protest movement is mobilising to oppose plans to explore for coal-seam methane gas in one of the state's most pristine valleys.
Wollombi Valley, which has been listed as a conservation area in the north of Sydney for more than 30 years, is in the target area of a major consortium comprising Sydney Gas and AGL Energy.
Environment groups, scientists and community leaders spearheading a campaign to stop the exploration and potential drilling and extraction will hold a public meeting on Saturday.
Sydney Gas and AGL hold petroleum exploration licences to explore for coal-seam methane gas across a wide area of the Sydney Basin, including the Wollombi Valley at the southern end of the Lower Hunter Valley.
With valuable farmland set in narrow valleys between Yengo National Park and the Watagan Mountains, Wollombi Valley is home to a variety of flora and fauna.
Aquifers are a critical source of water for the local population and the villages of Wollombi and Laguna have important heritage value.
Protesters claim that, if a coal-seam methane gas field is found in the valley and proves economic for production, up to 200 well heads could be installed as well as a large compressor station and pipelines.
"Coal-seam methane extraction presents significant risks to this environment," a spokesman for the protesters said yesterday.
"Large amounts of water would be removed by road tanker from each well head, possibly involving hundreds of vehicle movements each week.
"The infrastructure and heavy traffic movements associated with methane gas extraction would cause irreparable damage to the character and environment of the Wollombi Valley.""
An invitation to speak at Saturday's public meeting has been sent to Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett, who once owned property in the area, but he has yet to respond
1:55 PM, August 08, 2008
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