Labor is looking to cash in on anti-CSG sentiment in the state election, drawing fire from the industry and a response from the state government.
Labor leader Luke Foley announced a plan to ban coal seam gas (CSG) in the Pilliga forest.
Santos is in exploration mode in the Pilliga for its Narrabri project.
The company is developing a CSG field in the Pilliga and is preparing plans for approval, which would be considered by the new government sometime after the March 28 election.
Labor leader Luke Foley said the project was too risky to proceed.
“Communities in our state’s North West have made their opposition to coal seam gas in the Pilliga clear,” he said.
“The risks CSG poses to the natural assets of the Pilliga, particularly the underground water storages, are unacceptable.”
Mr Foley said in a statement that Labor would not cancel the exploration held by Santos but would not grant the licence needed to develop the project further.
A statement from NSW Labor said the Pilliga was an “important recharge area for the Great Artesian Basin”, citing modelling based on CSIRO data, and said the forest was a “important biodiversity hotspot”.
Santos energy NSW general manager Peter Mitchley said the Narrabri project was “well understood” and mostly located in dry scrub land.
“The part of the Pilliga in which our Narrabri Gas Project is located, was set aside by the NSW government for forestry and extractive industries following a thorough ecological assessment,” he said.
“(Santos is) finalising the Environmental Impact Statement and I wish people would wait until they see the (it) and judge the project on that rather than jumping to conclusions before they even know what we are trying to do.”
Mr Mtichley said the Narrabri project would create up to 1200 jobs during construction and 200 ongoing jobs.
Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association acting chief executive Paul Fennelly slammed Labor’s lurch to the left.
“Plagiarising the policies of the NSW Greens will not deliver an affordable natural gas supply for 1.3 million commercial and domestic gas users.
“The continued politicisation of the state’s gas supply by (Labor) sends a very loud message to anyone wanting to invest in NSW and an even louder message to the people of regional NSW wanting to grow their economies and support small businesses.”
The Coalition and Labor have both promised to put in place a moratorium on CSG exploration until the Chief Scientist’s recommendations for CSG development in NSW are implemented.
Following Labor’s announcement on the Pilliga, Resources Minister Anthony Roberts said the government would extend its scheme to buyback CSG exploration licences.
In its response to the Chief Scientist’s report, the government committed to a one-off buyback of exploration titles and has already purchased a range of licences across the state.
“We are continuing to assess the interest of various titleholders in taking part in the buy-back scheme and we remain open to their approaches,” Mr Roberts said.
Greens mining spokesman Jeremy Buckingham, whose party is calling for a total ban on CSG, said Mr Roberts’ buyback was an inadequate reaction to community opposition to the industry.
“It is also a gross waste of taxpayers money, as these licenses can and should be cancelled without compensation.
“What we are seeing is a Minister and a government trying to con voters, one week out from an election, into believing this is a significant response to their widespread opposition to coal seam gas.”