FED:Questions abound in CSG debate: scientists

AAP General News (Australia)
12-18-2011
FED:Questions abound in CSG debate: scientists

By Lauren Farrow

SYDNEY, Dec 18 AAP - Australians could be sitting on enough coal seam gas to meet the
nation's energy needs for the next 120 years, create more than 20,000 jobs and attracting
$40 billion of investment.

But accessing the resource might cause earthquakes, contaminate ground water and see
industrial wells sprouting up in people's backyards.

Speaking at an Australian Science Media Centre conference on Friday, Dr Peter Stone
said the coal seam gas (CSG) industry was riven with uncertainty.

According to Dr Stone, director of the Gas Industry Social and Environmental Research
Alliance, Australia's proven and probable reserves of CSG would be capable of boiling
150 Sydney Harbours.

But if you add to that the "possible" reserves lurking under the surface - you are
looking at enough gas to meet Australia's current energy needs for about 120 years, he
said.

As the world moves to a green economy, we could be looking at a hefty pay packet.

Global demands for CSG are expected to consume most of the resource, with the industry
predicted to create more than $40 billion in investment, 6000 permanent jobs and 18,000
temporary jobs.

CSG is also a lot cheaper than renewables.

"Coal seam gas is currently about 25 per cent cheaper than wind power and about 60
per cent cheaper than solar power," Dr Stone said.

And it's likely to remain that way for about two decades.

But the words "likely" and "possible" sprinkle conversations about CSG and there are
few, if any, certainties, Dr Stone says.

"The scale of the industry and of its benefits and costs isn't preordained ... the
industry may be smaller than anticipated," Dr Stone said.

No one is certain when, or even if, we will extract the 60 million tonnes of gas per
year that industry predicts.

Added to these perplexities are the very real misgivings people have about how CSG
is going to transform Australia's landscape, he said.

Unlike the coal industry, which has a small number of large mining sites across Australia,
the CSG boom could pepper the plains of the eastern coast with small industrial mines.

"The industry is actually likely to have a very large number of small assets distributed
across the landscape."

Then there are the environmental concerns of drawing out large quantities of groundwater
from a system already under pressure from historic over-allocations.

Dr Judy Bailey, coal geologist at the University of Newcastle, said it was even possible
that fracking could cause seismic activity.

The controversial process sees water, sand and chemicals injected into the ground at
high pressures to create fractures in the rock and draw out gas.

"Most earthquakes arise from movement along faults which are fractures that are pre-existing
in the rocks," Dr Bailey said.

"And so there's the possibility that these sort of processes (fracking) could lubricate
fractures that already exist in the rocks and facilitate movement."

Dr Bailey said an accurate figure on CSG emissions had not been pinned down.

"As an energy source, methane generates about half the carbon dioxide emissions compared
to coal," she said.

But when comparing the two resources, she said, the power stations as well as the energy
used during production needed to be considered.

"There's a lot of figures being bandied about - they're not all taking all of these
figures into account."

And with methane - the main ingredient in CSG - still producing "significant" carbon
dioxide emissions, Dr Bailey raised perhaps the biggest question.

"(People) are talking about a 30-year opportunity for coal seam gas. After the 30 years,
what then?

"Are we any further ahead for our energy options?"

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KEYWORD: CSG (AAP NEWSFEATURE)

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