CSG News edition #2
June 2012
Hello all and welcome to the second CSG Project newsletter. We hope you enjoyed the first instalment and found it a valuable source of information. We received great feedback and a few extra subscribers which is excellent to see. Please feel free to forward this to your friends and neighbours and also ensure you keep an eye on our ‘CSG in the News’ page as we will continue to update this page with all of the latest news throughout the month.
If you have any suggestions for improvement or news from your area we would love to hear from you! After all, you are our greatest source of information and we are ultimately trying to facilitate information sharing so that you are as informed as you can be. Please also feel free to email us any news from your regions and we can investigate on your behalf and inform all Projects members in the region and beyond.
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This service is delivered free to all landholders through funding from the Queensland Government.
News for all regions:
Coal seam gas information sessions – Phase 2
AgForce Projects has a new round of CSG information sessions that will be rolled out from July 2012. This second phase of information sessions will build on the information we have already provided to more than 1,900 landholders throughout Queensland. The focus of the phase 2 information sessions is to be more “hands on” and is designed to specifically assist you in your negotiations with a resource company.
Topics include:
- An update on CSG activities and legislative amendments across Queensland
- Developing and using a tailored checklist to assess CSG impacts to your business
- Identifying the benefits of a sound property plan and map for use in CCA negotiations; and
- Real world examples of information required when preparing to negotiate.
Injune CSG session
The phase 2 information session in Injune on 18 July has had very low registrations. When we last attempted to hold a session in Injune in March we were forced to cancel the session due to low numbers. However on the day of the cancelled session landholders who had not registered (and therefore could not be notified of the cancellation) attended the venue to discover the session was cancelled. This reinforces how important it is to register for our sessions - if we don’t receive the numbers we can’t justify the session. Had all interested parties registered the session may not have been cancelled. If you would like to attend the Injune session please register here (registrations are due 10 working days before the session).
Land Access Review
The Land Access Code that was introduced in October 2010 has had its first annual review. The report was delivered by the Queensland Government on Tuesday 19 June. The report is available here.
The report highlighted an optimal process for best practice management to ensure civil relations and positive outcomes for all parties involved.
The optimal process suggestions included:
- Notification of landholders at time of grant of tenure.
- Early engagement of the resource company with the landholder. Initial meetings should be conducted focussing on relationship development not to discuss agreements. The resource company contact should have a sound understanding of agricultural businesses in the local district and have authority to make decisions.
- Disclosure of information – as much detail as possible of proposed activities is to be divulged by both parties. The resource company should provide the landholder with a high quality image of their and neighbouring properties with its work plan mapped out which will provide for an accurate basis for discussions around location and scheduling of works;
- Both parties should be involved in work program planning, focusing on working together to minimise impacts and maximise benefits.
- All the above consultations and consideration should be discussed to agree on the undertaking of preliminary activities.
- Negotiate a CCA – focusing on conduct and compensation separately. Consideration of landholder time as a compensatable effect.
- Engage legal expertise to finalise agreement.
- Build and maintain a long term relationship facilitated by a single point of contact within the resource company for the landholder. This person should have practical knowledge of the work program and farming activities, and should also have authority to control contractors.
Please keep in mind that these are simply recommendations made by an independent panel to Government. It is now up to the Government to decide which, if any recommendations, they will implement.
The report also commended AgForce Projects CSG information sessions and said the program had been well used by landholders.
Submissions on the review are welcomed by the Government before 20 July 2012 and are to be made via the following form. Send completed forms to landaccessreview@deedi.qld.gov.au or by mail to The Land Access Review, Mining and Petroleum Industry Policy Division, Department of Natural Resources and Mines, PO Box 15168, City East, Queensland 4002.
Queensland Water Commission (QWC)
The QWC UWIR Public Consultation and public submission timeframe closed on Friday 22 June. You are still able to view the report and all associated maps and figures on the QWC website. You can also use the website to obtain specific information about the predicted impacts on your bore.
AgForce Projects CSG officers Joel Rickuss (SEQ), Daniel Phipps (CQ) and Natalie Pears (SIQ & SWQ) attended the QWC briefing in Toowoomba on 31 May 2012. Some important points from that briefing include:
- Companies will need to report their water monitoring data every 6 months to the QWC.
- Once the UWIR is finalised (it is currently in draft form), resource companies will need to start discussing with landholders anticipated to be affected to avoid impairment or arranging monitoring to track impairment.
- It is not just registered bores that are protected, all bores are protected by make good arrangements, it is ultimately about impairment of supply not the bore.
- There will be two phases of construction for extra monitoring sites with the end of 2013 for priority sites, and 2016 for the second stage of construction; and
- Companies will be responsible for bores on their tenure regardless of whether it was their activities that created the impairment. For example, Santos and QGC are operating on neighbouring properties – Santos is in production phase but QGC has not yet begun exploration, and a bore on the QGC property is impacted. QGC will be the responsible company to make good even though they have no operations that have impacted the bore. They however, own the tenure.
We found the following short video clip on new drilling technology being implemented by Origin Energy to be quite interesting. Take a look here.
Rail corridors and compulsory acquisition
With the Xstrata, Cockatoo, CVK-Hancock, Adani, Stanmore and Metrocoal mines all at various points along the approval process a number of rail corridors are set to be implemented in the Surat, Bowen and Galilee Basins.
The Surat Basin Rail is the so called ‘Southern Missing link’ from Wandoan to Banana and will join existing rail infrastructure to the Wiggins Island Coal Export Terminal, Stage Two to be constructed at Gladstone Port. The Surat Basin Rail is a State Development Area as declared by the Queensland Coordinator General in 2010. This rail project is being funded by an Australian based Joint Venture comprising ATEC (Dawson Valley Railway) Pty Ltd, Xstrata Coal Surat Basin Rail Pty Ltd and QR Surat Basin Rail Pty Ltd. For further information view the website here. See this link in relation to Cockatoo Coal and Stanmore Coal’s permission to negotiate with the Surat Basin Rail JV.
In relation to the Galilee and Bowen Basins see here the latest Ministerial Statement about approvals.
The Government has advised that it will approve two rail corridors:
- North-South corridor from around Alpha (to support the GVK-Hancock Coal Mine) to Abbot Point near Bowen; and
- East-West corridor extension of the existing QR National network from near Moranbah to the central Galilee Basin and will provide links to the coal ports of Abbot Point, Dalrymple Bay and Dudgeon Point.
Minister for State Development, Infrastructure & Planning Jeff Seeney has advised that these two corridors are potentially the only areas in which the State Government will use its powers of compulsory acquisition. Let us know if you have been contacted or will be impacted by these rail lines here.
Arrow Energy EIS
The public submission period for the Arrow Energy EIS has now closed. The next step for Arrow Energy is to provide supplementary reports to the Queensland Government to address concerns raised through the public submissions. The supplementary report will then be assessed by the Queensland Government.
GasFields Commission
On Tuesday 19 June the Queensland Government announced the six GasFields Commissioners from a pool of more than 80 applicants. The Commission will meet in July to review the 55 public submissions and provide feedback on how the Gasfields Commission will operate.
CSG University of New England Survey
PhD candidate Methuen Morgan from the University of New England has spent several years studying farmers' attitudes and behaviours towards a multitude of man-made environmental impacts and is now in the process of researching the extent to which anxiety about coal seam gas mining is contributing to farmers' overall levels of stress. The study seeks to quantify the psychological effects of CSG compared with other stresses faced by farmers which may provide assistance with policy development and service delivery in the agriculture versus mining debate.
To participate you must be over 18 and the owner/co-owner of a commercial agricultural property or be primarily responsible for making the decisions regarding the day-to-day running of the property. This survey will take about an hour to complete. The researchers are keen for feedback from all farmers, whether you support CSG or not.
AgForce urges you to take the time to complete this important survey, and pass it on to neighbours and friends. Responses are anonymous to encourage honest replies, with the survey able to be completed online or via paper copy by contacting our office. To take part in the survey online visit UNE CSG survey.
The CSG team news
Dan Corfe will be out and about representing AgForce at AgGrow on 10, 11 and 12 July. Daniel Phipps and Natalie Pears will be at two UQ Science Days on 12 and 13 July advising about opportunities in Agriculture and Primary Industry careers. Joel Rickuss is unfortunately leaving the team next Friday 29 June to pursue further environmental management roles. We wish him the best of luck.
Regional news
Southern Inland and South-West Queensland CSG news
South East Queensland CSG news
North Queensland CSG news
Central Queensland CSG news
