RAWSON Oil and Gas Limited received a mixed response when it attempted to ease community concern yesterday regarding the plan to drill a new gas well near Nangwarry.
Supported by the South Australian Government through the Plan for Accelerating Exploration (PACE) gas grant scheme, Nangwarry-1 will be drilled within PEL 155 in the Otway basin, which is located around 5km east of the town.
The drilling project has received $4.95m of funding from the State Government.
Yesterday at the Naracoorte Community Hall, members from Rawson were on hand to address any questions members of the public had about the upcoming project.
Rawson’s non-executive officer Michael McGowan said the main concerns raised were around potential risks to the environment.
“Obviously this is very pristine farming land and people would hate for anything to happen to it,” Mr McGowan said.
“Our assurance is we are doing everything in our powers to make sure nothing does happen to it and, in all the years gas has been produced down here, we are not aware of any major incidents that have caused a problem to the farming or wine industry.”
As expected, the information session did attract members from the Limestone Coast Protection Alliance.
“Overall it has been pretty positive, but obviously the LCPA would prefer if we were not coming here and drilling for gas,” Mr McGowan said.
Despite being down on numbers compared to previous protests, the LCPA members still made themselves highly visible at the community consultation.
After their recent victory to have fracking banned in the South East for the next 10 years, members of the alliance were still steadfast in their views regarding all gasfields.
LCPA correspondent secretary Cate Cooper said Rawson’s project raised both economical and environmental concerns.
“What kind of services could the local community have had from the $4.95m the government gave to Rawson for this project?” Ms Cooper said.
“They say this will provide jobs, but any jobs they do provide will be short-term as we do not have the talent pool for the higher skill based jobs.”
When the argument was raised that locating gas would bring energy prices down, Ms Cooper disagreed.
“That will come down to the monopoly of the pipeline and the east coast gas market,” she said.
“It is not going to bring down prices.”
Ms Cooper’s main environmental concerns were in relation to the drilling through two aquifers, which she said had the potential to cause major problems in the future.
“If it does not get into the aquifers straight away, it could in 50 or 100 years from now and if it does, you cannot unscramble the egg,” she said.
“The reality is there is risk and we do not want it to happen at all.”
However, not all members of the community were opposed to the project with one Nangwarry resident welcoming anything that had potential to drive the economy in the region.
“I have no complaints about it, I would like to see them find a good supply of gas, hopefully enough so they can start this mill up again in Nangwarry,” he said.
“You cannot give your house away these days – the mill closing just devastated the town.”
Frustrated with the ongoing protests for the LCPA, the resident questioned what problems they could possibly have with the project.
“I do not see any danger with it, they are not fracking and I was quite impressed with the way they presented how they are planning to do it,” he said.
“The biggest spin-off may be that other industries can use this gas and I would just love to see any business come into this town.”
