Only a few months back our State Minister Mr Ian MacDonald the Minister who oversaw possibly the biggest breach of a Gas Exploration Licence resigned from his much loved portfolio as the Minister for Mines and Forests. It is in the area of the Pilliga State Forest that Eastern Star Gas has been steadily working away destroying this “Lung” of New South Wales ,by clearing excessive area for their operations and by fooling the New South Wales Government into thinking that Eastern Star Gas’s operation would in no way effect the Environment and that they were sticking to their Exploration Licence as far as the number of CSG production appraisal wells with all the gas gathering and piping that a full production facilities that they have linked or are about to link to Wiliga Park Power station.
To further show that Eastern Star Gas has exceed the Exploration Licence, the licence states that for the second year Eastern Star Gas can either :” Conduct a CSG production appraisal program consisting of vertical and/or lateral production wells”, OR ” Drill a combination of production wells and core holes “.
Well, Eastern Star Gas is doing both ,and all in the time frame of the Second Year. Not only is Eastern Star Gas in direct contravention with their licence conditions , they are making money from using the gas produce, Eastern Star Gas has, by , an act of stealth and shear bravado,just gone ahead and told the New South Wales Government that they were going to connect the Exploration Pilot Production Fields to the gas gathering complex at Bibblewindi and hence to the approved 12 wells and pipe line as approved in Project Approval Part 3A , and to top that off Easter Star Gas is in the final stages of full new Pipeline, Gas Gathering and Water Treatment facilities to enable them to bring Tintsfield CSG Pilot into production to supply gas to the Wilga Park Power station.
Earlier I mentioned that Eastern Star Gas had bought two other CSG Pilots in the Bibblewindi State Forest on line , these are the Bibblewindi West Tri-Lateral Pilot and the Bibblewindi Multi-Lateral Pilot, and at least one extra well has been bought on line at the Bohena Pilot site . That’s a total of 4 CSG Pilots illegally put into money making production.
Eastern Star Gas has a number of wells and unfinished complexes scattered throughout their Lease Hold and they are called ‘Production Pilots’.
So , what makes what Eastern Star Gas has done a bit dodgy is a statement their minor partner Santos said in an article in the North West Magazine of July 19, 2010 < On page 27 Santos says ” Santos only has NSW Government approval to explore for coal seam gas , not the commercial extraction of gas “, and that is the same agreement that Eastern Star Gas has with the NSW Government under the terms of it’s Exploration Licence.
So ,what makes Eastern Star Gas so special , or gives them the right to write their own rules ?,and that brings me right back to Ian MacDonald MLC .and his resignation.
23-7-10