Narrabri gasfield proposes to drill 850 wells in North West NSW, but now there’s a roadmap to make it redundant.

The Northmore Gordon report, published by the Climate Council, provides a decarbonisation roadmap for New South Wales which, if adopted, would mean there would be no need for gas from Santos’ Narrabri project.

Read and download the full report here.

This means we don’t need:

• The risk and damage it would bring to the groundwater of the Great Artesian Basin;
• The hundreds of thousands of tonnes of salt waste it would produce;
• The spread of gasfields across the North West region’s farmland that would follow;
• The damage it would inflict on the Pilliga, a Gomeroi cultural heritage and biodiversity icon. 

NSW can cut gas demand by up to 70% by 2035

• The Northmore Gordon roadmap illustrates a potential pathway for NSW to reduce its gas consumption by 25% within 5 years, 70% in 10-15 years, and entirely eliminate gas use by mid-century
• This includes reducing or eliminating gas use in the manufacture of timber and pulp, brick works, food and beverages and in the heating of homes and suburban pools.
• This means eliminating in the order of 30PJ of gas demand before the Narrabri gas project even begins production, and 80PJ by 2035, which is more than the gasfield is expected annually to produce.
• NSW has committed to reducing its greenhouse emissions by 35% by the end of this decade, and decarbonising away from gas can play a role in achieving that.
• The Narrabri gasfield would add about 5 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually to Australia and New South Wales’ direct emissions at a time when Australia needs to achieve about 7.5 million tonnes emissions reduction every year to meet its 2030 goal, as well as maintaining the reductions found in previous years.

The future of energy for NSW is in renewables, not gas

Image Source: https://www.energy.nsw.gov.au/renewables/renewable-generation/solar-energy