Dr Anthony Lynham
August 24, 2017
A ban on underground coal gasification (UCG) in Queensland is now the letter of the law, following the successful passage of legislation in Parliament on Thursday.
Natural Resources Minister Dr Anthony Lynham said while creating jobs for regional Queenslanders and boosting the economy was a priority for the State Government, the risks that UCG posed outweighed any potential positives.
“In 2009, the Queensland Government established a process for three companies to trial UCG operations on a small scale,” Dr Lynham said.
One of these was by Cougar Energy (now Moreton Resources) at Coolabunia, but was stopped after a failure in a well-pipe.
A second, by Linc Energy near Chinchilla, was halted after alleged contamination of a large amount of land around the plant.
The third trial was by Carbon Energy at Bloodwood Creek near Dalby. This plant has also been decommissioned.
“An independent scientific panel report on the pilot trials found that sufficient scientific and technical information was not yet available to reach a final conclusion about the operation of this industry on a commercial scale,” Dr Lynham said.
“Issues associated with two of the three trial projects and the uncertainty about commercial scale operations, have highlighted significant risks with this industry which are just not acceptable.
“Queensland prides itself on the stringent environmental, health and safety standards we have in place and there are countless resource companies successfully operating within this regulatory framework.”
UCG involves converting coal to a synthesised gas by burning coal underground.
The syngas is processed on surface to create products such as aviation fuels and synthetic diesel.
It is a different process to coal seam gas extraction (CSG).
