Pilliga GasWatch Inspection – June 2024
Santos retreat from their drilling ambitions in New South Wales
A recent update from the desk of the Santos Narrabri Operations Team has confirmed rumours that the company is slowing down its operations in NSW. The update states “No further drilling activities in 2024”. NWPA recently went into the forest on one of our regular Pilliga GasWatch Inspections to find out more.*
Phase 1 of the Narrabri Gas Project officially commenced in February 2023 after a delay between when approval was granted, but since then only two well pads have been cleared and a handful of cheap and data-compromised water monitoring bores installed using existing coal seam gas exploration wells.
The Narrabri Gas Project was approved in 2020 and nearly four years on, the company appears to have stalled. It’s been challenged by court cases, delays from heavy rain and bushfire. The long-term manager Todd Dunn has left his position on the Santos New South Wales team. The Queensland Hunter Gas Pipeline continues to meet widespread landholder resistance despite Santos flashing cash and the import LNG terminal at Port Kembla is on track for commissioning in 2025/26 (this terminal will provide cheaper gas to NSW).
NSW Mining, Explorations Geosciences (MEG) determines coal seam un-mineable
“The NSW Mining, Exploration and Geosciences has determined that coal seams around the said wells do not intersect with any potential mineable coal seams. The Auditors sighted a letter dated 19 December 2022 from NSW Mining, Exploration and Geosciences (Grant McLatchie – Executive Director Geological Survey of NSW) providing a determination that wells Bohena 3 and 7 and Bibblewindi 3, 4, 7, 8 and 9 (Nine Spot) do not intersect with any potential mineable coal seams.” The Bibblewindi Nine Spot wells were acid-fracked by Halliburton in 2006. You can read about these older wells here.
Observation 82 on page 256 states: “The current letter dated 19 December 2022 from NSW Mining, Exploration and Geosciences is relevant to specific wells for determining the mineability of coal seams. Using current geological data and other relevant information, Santos should consult MEG to seek a determination on the mineability of coal seams for all of PAL 2.”
What’s happening in the Pilliga Forest
We spent a couple of days in the forest in early June 2024 observing the recovery progress after the Duck Creek fire that burnt hot in so many places, particularly where Santos have their coal seam gas operations. See our blog from our previous Pilliga GasWatch Inspection.
We visited every well that is marked on the government website MinView as producing gas and found that several of these wells did not appear to be active. In total we visited 14 active wells.
The Santos NGP Independent Environmental Audit Report 2023 states “There are currently 52 well heads within the NGP SSD 6456 approval boundary of varying operational status”.
The Water Monitoring Portal has not been updated since July 2023 and waste tankers are still attending the Leewood Water Treatment Facility.
Bohena 1C Clean Up
We groundtruthed the area around Bohena 1C to check it had been cleaned up after a report was made to the EPA of burnt debris (including burnt irrigation infrastructure, fibreglass rods, bolts and plastic). The site is now cleaner and different to what we first witnessed in our previous Pilliga GasWatch Inspections after the fire; the official record will not show that Santos had left the area unremediated because the EPA failed to visit the site before Santos arrived to clean it up.
Make sure you report all pollution to the EPA via their email info@environment.nsw.gov.au and send any images/video you have and ask that they be included in the report.
*Pilliga GasWatch Inspections are a gasfield monitoring initiative of NWPA