Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
DUBBO is smack bang in the middle of 9400 square kilometres of land that may become the next frontier for coal seam gas exploration.
A company with a Central Coast postal address has lodged a Petroleum Exploration Licence Application (PELA) with NSW Trade and Investment’s Resources and Energy Division.
CEEMAC Pty Limited, contactable at 30 Anderson Road, Glenning Valley, wants to drill, sample and seismic survey land that includes the entire Dubbo Local Government Area.
An online map provided by NSW Trade and Investment’s Office of Coal Seam Gas reveals that ground in the Narromine, Gilgandra, Warrumbungle and Mid-Western Regional local government areas is within the application’s boundaries, including “portions” of the Cobbora Coal Project.
Dubbed PELA 160, the application is currently “under consideration”.
CEEMAC has lodged a total of three PELAs in the past three months. The first, PELA 158, was lodged on December 5 last year for land north-east of Lithgow.
Its exhibition period has been extended to March 13.
On February 17 this year the company lodged PELA 160 and PELA 159, related to 888 square kilometres of land in the Warrumbungle Shire.
Coolah and Binnaway feature on another map from the Office of Coal Seam Gas showing the land boundaries of PELA 159, also under consideration.
Yesterday a spokeswoman for the division said the Office of Coal Seam Gas was in the process of setting the dates for public comment on PELAs 159 and 160.
“Advertisements informing the community of the public comment period will then be placed in statewide and local newspapers,” she said.
“The community will have 28 days to make any submissions from the date the advertisements appear.
Keeping the local community informed is an important part of any exploration program.
“As a result, the NSW government has now made effective engagement with the community a condition of all exploration licences.”
The spokeswoman said the turnaround for applications could take up to 12 months.
She said they were assessed by the Resources and Energy Division and the Office of Coal Seam Gas, but the Minister for Resources and Energy held the power to approve or refuse.
The spokeswoman said “further approval from the minister for drilling, sampling and seismic surveys” would be required if exploration titles were granted.
“Each application for works of this nature is considered on its merits, and must take into account requirements under Part 5 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 and relevant government policies, including the Aquifer Interference Policy and the Strategic Regional Land Use Policy,” she said.
The spokeswoman emphasised that, while exploration licences covered larger areas of land, exploration activities were not allowed in areas such as national parks, or in the recently gazetted two-kilometre exclusion zones around homes in cities, towns and villages.
She said a petroleum exploration licence allowed “exploration for all types of petroleum within the licence area, including coal seam gas”.
The spokeswoman referred the community to www.resources.nsw.gov.au for information including the Strategic Land Use Community Consultation Guidelines “outlining the requirements and responsibilities companies have to the community”.