A GAS exploration company says concerns raised by an anti-coal-seam gas (CSG) group about the company’s drilling proposals in the south-west are “scare mongering”.
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Lakes Oil chairman Rob Annells said a community meeting called for this Friday, April 3, at Peterborough about the company’s plans was getting people concerned about fracking when Lakes Oil has no plans to undertake the controversial practice.
Mr Annells said Lakes Oil wanted to use conventional drilling techniques to drill down to about 1500 metres for two ‘proof of concept’ onshore wells between Portland and Port Campbell.
He said the company had no plans to use fracking for the ‘proof of concept’ wells or for any production wells that might follow.
Lakes Oil’s proposals for the onshore wells have so far not been approved by the state government, a decision that Mr Annells described as unfair because Origin Energy had been allowed to drill down to similar onshore depths with wells it has drilled at Nirranda South.
After drilling the downward sections from Nirranda South, Origin Energy drilled horizontally to go offshore to tap into gas reserves at a distance of nearly five kilometres.
Friday’s Peterborough meeting has been called by the anti-fracking group Lock the Gate that said it was not concerned about Lakes Oil’s proposed ‘proof of concept’ wells but the wells the company might drill after that.
Lock the Gate Victorian coordinator Chloe Aldenhoven said Lakes Oil needed to tell the community what techniques it would use for any post-exploration wells.
She believed Lakes Oil was unlikely to be able to access gas in the Eumeralla formation in the south-west without using fracking and horizontal drilling.
Ms Aldenhoven, a Peterborough landholder, said fracking used hundreds of wells that could cause damage to groundwater tables.
She said Friday’s meeting had been called because the community needed to discuss its position on the drilling for CSG and other unconventional gases before a state moratorium on such exploration was lifted.
Mark Ogge, a representative from economic think tank The Australia Institute, will speak at the meeting about the potential economic impact on the area of the unconventional gas industry.
The meeting will be held from 10am on Friday at the Peterborough CFA shed in Macs Street, Peterborough.