Miners prepare to spruik benefits

The six-member Natural Resources Committee has been hearing evidence from a wide range of groups including the South East Local Government Association, the SE NRM Board, the Limestone Coast Grape & Wine Council, the Environmental Defenders Office and concerned residents at regular sittings at Parliament House in Adelaide - but it still has many more to come.

It has just confirmed another session in the SE on September 15-16 at Robe - the first council area to hold a Gasfield Free Declaration Ceremony.

The opposition of Limestone Coast communities wanting to safeguard the region's precious underground aquifers and protect their existing industries such as agriculture and tourism is being heard loud and clear.

Mining companies Santos and Halliburton have presented their evidence and proponent Beach Energy and the SA Chamber of Mines & Energy will present in the next month. They are hoping to highlight to the committee the SA oil and gas industry's excellent track record of environmental safety in the Otway and Cooper Basins and how mining has coexisted with agriculture for decades.

MP for Ashford and presiding member Steph Key said there had been a "lot of interest" with 177 public submissions to the inquiry, which had many similarities with the inquiry into the Eyre Peninsula's Water Needs where water was a major concern for local communities.

"On the whole we have heard a lot of negative opposition from the local communities down there (Limestone Coast) so it will be interesting to see if we can find anyone who sees some opportunities when we go back," she said.

"Our aim is to hear from everyone we need to as soon as possible, but it is a big job and we all have other parliamentary responsibilities we have to fit in."

Beach Energy, which drilled two exploration wells near Penola last year looking for deep deposits of shale gas, is still analysing the core samples and says the results will determine any future activity in the area.

A Beach Energy spokesperson said it welcomed its engagement with members of the NRC. Late last year it showed committee members sites in the SE that depicted various stages of rehabilitation, including a fully rehabilitated well site and one of its more recent exploration well sites.

"Beach looks forward to presenting to the committee, as it will provide an opportunity to respond to any questions members have of Beach, following the presentations and submissions they have received to date," she said.

SA Chamber of Mines & Energy policy director Nigel Long said it was not in "the industry's interest to go contaminating aquifers".

"There is more than 30-odd years of production in the Otway Basin near the wine region of Coonawarra and Penola, and 100 years of exploration without any contamination of the aquifers or effect on natural resources," he said.

Dr Long said landholders on the Limestone Coast would not notice huge changes to the landscape if proposed shale gas projects went ahead.

"It will not be a significantly bigger footprint than is already there with the use of horizontal (or deviated) drilling and multi-well pads," he said.

"It will not be thousands or even hundreds of wells but at most tens of wells we are talking about."

Dr Long, who will present to the inquiry next month, said the fracking process had never been the cause of overseas accidents, with poor well design to blame instead.

"From the overseas examples reported in the United States, a lot of the fracking concerns are about the headlines rather than the details," he said.

"The industry in SA has shown time-and-time-again in the Otway and Cooper Basin that it has quality well designs and integrity and a thorough knowledge of the underground aquifers and rock formations in the area."

"There have never been any negative impacts on the aquifers and we have a very different regulatory regime to the US."

He said fracking was not new, and high-volume hydraulic fracturing was just the latest innovation.