Santos’ Narrabri Gas Project is:
- the largest proposed development under the modern planning system
- four times the size of the two other CSG projects assessed and approved in NSW
What is being proposed?
- 850 coal seam gas wells on 425 well pads over 95,000 hectares
- a gas processing facility for compression dehydration and treatment of gas
- a water management facility for storage and treatment of produced water and brine
- possible additional power generation on site
- continual flaring (burning off of gas) at two locations
- an infrastructure corridor through the forest between Leewood and Bibblewindi
- Santos estimates approximately 500,000 tonnes of salt to be disposed of in landfill
- discharge of waste water into Bohena Creek
- irrigation with treated water
- expansion of worker accommodation
What’s at risk?
- creeks and rivers
- groundwater, including the Great Artesian Basin
- productive agricultural land
- biodiversity
- ecosystem fragmentation
- air quality from fugitive emissions
- seepage of contaminants from abandoned wells and landfill sites
- infrastructure initiating bushfires in an area prone to bushfires
- higher domestic gas prices due to high production costs
- harm to indigenous heritage and cultural sites
How to get the gas to market?
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use locally in gas fired power plant and in proposed new industries such as brickworks and ammonium nitrate factory
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Western Slopes Pipeline - proposed 460km pipeline from Narrabri to Condobolin, connecting into the Moomba Sydney pipeline. Landowners on the pipeline route refused contractors access to survey their land in 2017.
- Hunter Gas Pipeline, approved as Critical State Significant Infrastructure in NSW, is proposed to run from Wullambilla in Queensland to Narrabri and Newcastle but landholders along the route have not received correspondence since 2011.
Emissions
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Coal seam gas is 94% methane, which is invisible and has no smell.
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Over 20 years, methane has a global warming potential that is 85 times greater than carbon dioxide.
- When coal seams are disturbed by gas extraction, methane is unavoidably lost to the atmosphere as fugitive emissions.
- The Narrabri Gas Project will increase Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to the adverse impacts of climate change.
Community Response
- Traditional Owners, environmentalists, farmers and concerned Australian citizens from all walks of life are united in their campaign to oppose this project.
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Over 22,000 people lodged formal objections to the Narrabri Gas Project’s Environmental Impact Statement, more than for any other project in the NSW planning system.
- Long-term environmental, heritage and agricultural costs will be borne by future generations. The full impact of this project may not show up for many years.
For more information check out our Home Truths Report