1.2.3.2 Coal seam gas

There are currently no proposed coal seam gas (CSG) developments seeking to progress beyond early stage exploration in this bioregion. A series of actions have been put in place by NSW Government to control future exploration, which are currently limiting CSG-related activity in the Sydney Basin bioregion (NSW Government, 2014b, p. 7–10). These include:

accepting all the recommendations made by the Chief Scientist and Engineer’s Independent Review (NSW Government, 2014c)
introducing a new strategic framework to ensure new exploration licences are only issued in areas released after careful assessment of economic, environmental and social factors
applications being processed during 2014 were dissolved and no new applications are to be considered until a new strategic framework is in place
introducing a one-off buy-back offer that commenced in December 2014 to purchase unused exploration licences; petroleum exploration licences over national parks will be removed
enforcing potential title cancellation for companies where current title holders are unable to demonstrate a serious commitment to investment in the state by the end of 2015 (NSW Government, 2014b, p. 7–10).

The activities listed above have resulted in 17 petroleum exploration licence (PEL) buy-back offers (DIR&E, 2016c), one of which (PEL 2) was in the Sydney Basin bioregion. As at 12 January 2015, there are no recorded PEL applications in NSW (DIR&E, 2016a) and no current petroleum production lease applications (PLAs) in the bioregion (DIR&E, 2016b).

Last updated:

21 January 2019

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