St Peters coal seam gas mining meeting 06/12/2010

I attended the St Peters Coal Seam Gas Mining Public Meeting at Petersham Town Hall last night, along with about 150 other concerned citizens from St Peters, Petersham, Tempe and other surrounding suburbs (I'm in Camperdown)

I took some notes - in addition to my previous post about this which has newspaper article links - I haven't had time to type them up yet, so below are my notebook pages - pls excuse the messy writing. some of it was hard to hear so there's a few "...??(pls check)" sections but it should give you an idea on what was discussed. I also recorded audio of the meeting though it's rather unclear to listen to also (phone recording)

people are organizing a rally in the park (date / place tbc) and contact details were taken for people interested in being part of the organizing group. if you would like to help, or just find out more, please contact Cate Faehrmann (Green party) via cate.faehrmann AT parliament DOT nsw DOT gov DOT au or visit Cate's campaign page. there is also a facebook page/group called Sydney Residents Against Coal Seam Gas - please join this to find out more or to offer your help

the rally is being held:
Where: Cnr Campbell Rd & Euston Sts, St Peters (near Sydney Park / near approved drill site)
When: 11am, Saturday December 19

You might want to also take a look at the "Lock the Gate Alliance" group on facebook (search for it if there's a problem with this link), or their website http://lockthegate.org.au - they have factsheets about coal seam gas mining and are trying to stop it happening on farming land in Qld and NSW. I'm finding it very worrying that the gas mining companies are risking our future water supplies and farming land (crop production) - I'm hoping that the city mining will be squashed, but I hope also the regional mining will be too.

this factsheet was handed out (pdf version of printed copy) - it covers topics such as :

Coal Seam Methane Gas - Fact Sheet NSW
What is Coal Seam Gas?
How is Methane Gas extracted from a Coal Seam?
How could this affect me?
How am I protected?
Where can I find help?

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also, last night I took at look at some of the ASX announcements on the companies involved:

Apollo Gas ASX announcement for St Peters drilling http://bit.ly/ftPaWQ (rename .asp to .pdf to read) (search for Apollo Gas "AZO" ASX code on ASX.com.au)

"The PEL (Petroleum Exploration Licence) licence area covers 2,385 square kilometres & extends from Kurnell to Gosford & west to Eastern Creek." - they've said they want to start in St Peters, but the licence allows exploration much further than this. where else will it happen??
http://www.apollogas.net.au/PEL-463.pdf is a map showing the area covered by the PEL. note on the apollo gas site they have been granted multiple PELs covering other areas of NSW too

ASX shows a takeover bid for Apollo (AZO) by Dart Energy 26/11 (Asia/Aus) http://bit.ly/gFVPdA related much?

from Dart's customers (listed on their website) it looks like if that gas does get drilled it's off to asia with it? at the meeting, they mentioned there were no agreements with the City of Sydney for any gas that might be drilled by Apollo to be used by City of Sydney. Dart was demergered from Arrow Energy in October 2010, so there's been quite a few restructures in the companies going on.

something to think about.. what makes a company get city mining licence, then split into other companies. apollo's share price is dropping. I imagine dart would get a good deal

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other links / info :

Arrow Energy community factsheets

pdf factsheet - difference between CSG (coal seam gas) and USG (underground coal gasification) - produced by Arrow Energy

Murray Darling Basin Authority - Basin Plan website

Malcom Turnbull has written a blog post about the Murray Darling Basin Plan which discusses some of the issues : The water act and the basin plan

the Commonwealth Water Act 2007

Windsor plans CSG fix article on Queensland Country Life website

Murray-Darling inquiry news page - Tony Windsor asks people to make submissions on their concerns regarding Murray Darling Basin and Water issues (watch the video) - submissions due 20th december

Tony Windsor's question in parliament about water & coal seam gas mining 26/10/2010 http://bit.ly/i5U2pv

[quote]Companies seeking to exploit the lucrative NSW coal seam gas reserves are likely to face a new federal regulatory barrier as the independent MP Tony Windsor prepares to use his balance-of-power position to require region-wide water assessments before new mining proceeds.[/quote]

don't forget about the "Beyond Zero Emissions - Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan which was released earlier this year - pushing for "100% renewable energy for Australia by 2020" ie no mining (coal or gas) required. http://beyondzeroemissions.org

Cate Faehrmann's (Green Party) CSG briefing paper (pdf) - Cate was the person who initially raised awareness of the St Peters exploratory drilling approval - thanks for letting us know about this Cate!

http://www.apollogas.net.au/PEL-463.pdf - this shows the map of sydney where the PEL (licence) has been approved for exploratory drilling
if you click on http://www.apollogas.net.au - Overview, you can see there's multiple PEL's granted to Apollo gas..

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06/12/2010 meeting notes:

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audio : mp3 part1 (38:56) & mp3 part 2 (46:35)

http://www.archive.org/details/StPetersCoalSeamGasMiningMeeting