THE Penola community has the opportunity to comment on proposed gas production activities in the district by Beach Energy.
The Department of Energy and Mining is calling for public comment on Beach Energy’s plans to reinstate production at the idle Katnook processing site.
Located at Katnook on Argyle Road 10km south-west of Penola, these pipelines and the Katnook plant were mothballed in 2013 due to declining gas production.
But Beach has released plans to reinstate gas production in the district after discovering a commercial field at its recently drilled Haselgrove-3 conventional gas exploration well south of Penola.
The burgeoning gas drilling company has further plans to drill additional wells in the district and undertake a multi-million-dollar redevelopment of the ageing gas plant.
Beach Energy regional manager Glenn Toogood said the document was tweaked following the company’s extensive community consultation.
He said the document addressed a number of issues raised by the community, which had now been released for public comment by the department.
Mr Toogood said this latest round of community consultation was part of the approval process.
A summary of the issues raised by stakeholders and Beach responses are provided in the document.
To allow production and processing of the gas an updated petroleum production environmental impact report and statement of environmental objectives was required.
“New processing facilities are likely to be located at or adjacent to existing processing infrastructure at the Katnook site,” the report said.
“At this stage, the condensate and water storage tanks are likely to be refurbished and re-used as part of the Katnook redevelopment.”
But the majority of the existing process equipment and piping is likely to be removed.
The Katnook Gas Plant was initially constructed by Origin Energy Resources Limited and started production in 1991.
The gas plant supplied gas for more than 20 years to industrial customers in the South East region.
In 2007, the gas plant and associated infrastructure was sold to Adelaide Energy Proprietary limited.
Beach acquired Adelaide Energy in 2011 and subsequently stopped production at the plant due to limited gas supply from the well field.
The lengthy environmental impact report addresses a number of potential environmental impacts, including the possibility of leaks, impact on fauna and flora as well as water disposal.
According to the report, the potential risk of gas processing to public safety is “low”.
“Potential risks to public safety arise mainly from the inherent risk of explosion or fire due to the nature of petroleum production operations,” the report said.
“However, this risk is reduced to As Low As Reasonably Practical by compliance with relevant standards.”
Written submissions can be emailed to DEM.Engineering@sa.gov.au or posted to Jarrod Spencer, Department for Energy and Mining, Energy Resources Division, GPO Box 320 Adelaide 5001.
Submissions close at 5pm on February 1.
