community pressure
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20 September 2011
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WA shale revolution faces community pressure
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
James McGrath
WESTERN Australian Department of Mines and Petroleum director
Bill Tinapple has admitted that shale development in WA faces
uncertainty due to public concerns over fraccing.
Speaking yesterday at the 2011 Good Oils Conference in
Fremantle, Tinapple said the department was caughtoffside by the level ofcommunity concern over fraccingin the state.
It actually caught us by surprise the level of publicconcern and push back which we have seen in WesternAustralia, he said.
Were trying to go through a process of makinginformation available to the public on our website andrunning community workshops.
Were trying to educate the public because there are a
lot of myths out there about how fracturing has been
used in wells in the US.
He hinted that the fresh wave ofcommunity concern about hydraulic fracturing
stemmed from the Eastern States, where the coal seam gas industry has facedpolitical heat on the issue.
Theres no evidence that [fraccing] activity has caused pollution, so at the
moment were working on a public discussion to let people know that the targetswere talking about here in WA are not those like in NSW or Queensland these
are deep targets, he said.
Tinapple added that WAs regulatory system was quite strong and had stood the
test of fraccing done in the state in the past.
In Western Australia its quite interesting that weve actually had fraccing herefor 40 years and 750 frac jobs have been done, which is a surprise to many
people, he said.
A lot of the frac jobs have been done on Barrow Island trying to increase the oil
there but there have been 40 in the Perth Basin too.
However, he added that the system currently in place would need to be tested as
shale exploration and associated fraccing activity started to ramp up.
Currently the DMP requires detailed information to be submitted to determine
whether a fracture program can be carried out, including the scale of theprogram; distances from the nearest aquifer/s; all chemical additives used inoperation; volumes, management and disposal of water; integrity of well
casings; fracture modelling and monitoring of fraccing; and long-term monitoringto determine whether chemical contamination is an issue.
The DMP will refer a proposal to the states Environmental Protection Agency if
an activity is proposed or within 500m of an environmentally sensitive area andliaise with the agency if a proposed activity is within 2km of a town site orcoastline or likely to impact a water resource area.
Yesterday Norwest Energy received the all-clear to start a fracture stimulation ofthe Arrowsmith-2 well in the Perth Basin, although the EPA said the activity was
on a small scale and unlikely to have a significant impact on the environment.
We think we have a pretty good system but it needs to be tested and
demonstrated, Tinapple said.
We [the industry] need to do a good job in cleaning up after ourselves andmaking sure we dont use improper materials rather than just being seen to be
doing that.
He admitted the higher cost of shale gas exploration in Australia and the lack of
Drilling the Arrowsmith-2
well, courtesy AWE
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equipment capable of fraccing in the state would act as prohibitors todevelopment.
However, he said the effect of higher gas prices in the state would make theeconomics of development more attractive.
The current situation is fairly unique in WA in that despite all this offshore gas,
we do have a tightness in our domestic gas supply and thats causing the gasprice in WA to be about $10-$12 [per gigajoule] which is different from the east
coast, Tinapple said.
Some people would say, and its probably true at the early stages, that to drill awell and frac in Australia costs three times as much as it does in the US, where
theres a huge amount of infrastructure.
We see that changing as we get to the critical mass and get over that hump andas we add infrastructure, but right now it is true that the $10-$12 we believe[will] support exploration and demonstration.
He said the state was keen to welcome shale explorers with open arms, as mostof the states offshore gas assets had been developed and the sheer potential fora US-style shale frenzy meant the government was keen to provide incentives,
including assisting in the formation of drilling clubs and the building of
infrastructure in key shale areas including the Canning and Perth basins.
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