Skip navigation

Salt in the wound: An assessment of the scale of the NSW Government’s planned expansion of Santos’ Narrabri coal seam gas field

New analysis has revealed a staggering one-third of the land covered by “zombie” petroleum licences being brought back from the dead by the NSW Berejiklian Government is home to the best farming soils in the state.

About 400,000 hectares of what’s known as biophysical strategic agricultural land (BSAL) is contained within the roughly 1.1 million ha of coal seam gas tenements across the Upper Hunter, Liverpool Plains, and Namoi Valley, that the NSW Government plans to reinstate.

Read and download the full report here

The analysis also shows that if the scale of coal seam gas development and impacts approved for the Narrabri gas project were replicated across this larger area, more than 10,000 additional coal seam gas wells could be drilled, removing as much as 449 billion litres of groundwater. 

Such a gargantuan expansion of the industry could be expected to create an additional 10 million tonnes of solid salt waste, and emit roughly 1.5 billion tonnes of greenhouse pollution over 25 years - equivalent to three times Australia’s annual greenhouse gas emissions. 

Read and download the full report here

Image credit: North West Protection Advocacy 

 

Continue Reading

Read More

Safeguard Mechanism Report

October 09, 2023

Read the Full ReportEnergy Resource Insights Briefing Report: Money for Nothing - Australia coal mines under the reformed Safeguard Mechanism The report finds that: A number of large Australian coal mines will be able to significantly increase their emissions this decade under the reformed...

Read more

Queensland Fugitive Emissions

September 07, 2023

Queensland has a longstanding history of exporting carbon pollution to the world, primarily in the form of coal extracted from its mines. The carbon emissions contained in this exported coal is around four times more than Queensland’s domestic emissions annually. However, as we bring...

Read more