P LANS TO M INE & ‘ FRACK ’ COX PENINSULAR & D UNDEE , BELYUEN & WAGAIT BEACH Wagait Beach Community Breifing 1 Green – MBS Oil Blue – Arafura Oil Red – Bonaparte Oil Orange – NT Gas Aust Pink – Paltar Petroleum
R ISKS FROM SHALE OIL AND GAS IN THE T ERRITORY ¢ Major dirty fossil fuel source in shale rocks 1-3km underground ¢ Usually needs horizontal fracking to crack deep shale rocks ¢ Pollution of aquifers and drinking water with fracking chemicals ¢ Pollution of aquifers leaking and failed wells ¢ Water use for fracking deep shale rocks, salty ‘produce water’ ¢ Land clearing fragments landscapes for roads, exploration, pipes ¢ Damage to farmland, pastoral lands, cultural sites, fishing, Nat Parks
L ANDSCAPES FROM Q UEENSLAND CSG FIELDS
R ISKS FROM SHALE OIL AND GAS IN THE T ERRITORY , 2 ¢ Seismic exploration and oil spills in the marine environment Loud underwater noise bursts scare fish and marine wildlife Impacts on dreaming places and sacred sites for Indigenous communities ¢ Health impacts for land holders due to water & air pollution? ¢ Reduced value of properties? ¢ Beauty of our land and sea marred by ugly gas industrialisation ¢ Major carbon pollution contributing to global warming from fugitive methane emissions from leaking/failed wells and cracked ¢ shale rocks LNG or oil production ¢ transport by trucks ¢ burning the gas for electricity in Australia and abroad. ¢ ¢ A large NT shale gas industry will prevent NT carbon pollution falling for decades, & delay transition to large scale renewable energy production .
Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, is the process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at a high pressure in order to fracture shale rocks to release natural gas inside. Wagait Beach Community Breifing 5
Wagait Beach Community Breifing 6
Wagait Beach Community Breifing 7 NT Gas Aus Pty Ltd has made an application EP 255 to extract gas from our area
W HAT IS FRACKING ? ¢ It takes 1-8 million gallons of water to complete each fracturing job. Wagait Beach Community Breifing ¢ The water is mixed with sand and chemicals to create fracking fluid. Approximately 40,000 gallons of chemicals are used per fracturing. ¢ Up to 600 chemicals used in fracking fluid including lead, uranium, mercury, ethylene glycol, radium, methanol, hydrochloric acid, formaldehyde, arsenic ¢ Fracking fluid then pressure injected into ground via drilled pipeline ¢ The mixture reaches the end of the well where high pressure causes the shale rock to crack, creating 8 fissures where natural gas flows into the well.
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RISKS OF FRACKING ¢ During process both methane gas and toxic chemicals leach out from the system and contaminate nearby groundwater. ¢ Methane concentrations have been found 17x higher in some Wagait Beach Community Breifing drinking water bores near fracking sites than normal bores ¢ There have been cases of sensory, respiratory and neurological damage due to ingesting contaminated water ¢ Some of the fracking fluid is not recovered [20% left behind is industry best practice, in some sites it’s as high as 70%]. The rest of the toxic non biodegradable fluid is left in the ground. Long term impacts of this are unknown. ¢ Waste fluid that is recovered is either left in open air pits to evaporate releasing harmful VOCs [volatile organic compounds] into atmosphere including contaminated air & acid rain OR transported and treated/stored elsewhere. In 10 QLD it has been dumped on dirt roads as dust management!
W HAT CAN COUNCILS DO ? ¢ As a council, actively defend our community against oil & shale gas exploration Wagait Beach Community Breifing ¢ Move a motion noting council opposition to petroleum [oil & gas] exploration ¢ Contact relevant department heads and ministers re: EP 255 ¢ Help ratepayers get informed & connected with resources and information. Contact ‘Don’t Frack the Territory’ campaigner Emma Murphy on 11 8981 8003
LEGAL RIGHTS OF LANDOWNERS ¢ The NT has a very weak regulatory framework ¢ Landowners do not have to be advised that an Wagait Beach Community Breifing application for exploration is being considered over their land ¢ Landowners are not able to prevent exploration on their land ¢ Activities under the Petroleum Act are not subject to the Water Act or Waste Management and Pollution Control Act ¢ There are limits to the time you can object to applications [2 months]- It is important to get 12 organised and informed early.
PETROLEUM ACT - SECT 18 Notice of application for exploration permit (1AA) This section applies as soon as practicable: (a) after the Minister has received an application for an exploration permit under section 16(1); or (b) if the Minister has made a request under section 16(5)(a) – after the Minister has received all relevant information; or Wagait Beach Community Breifing (c) if the Minister has made a request under section 16(5)(b)– after all matters relevant to the amendment or variation have been completed in accordance with the guidelines issued under section 21E. (1) The Minister must cause to be published, at the expense of the applicant, in a newspaper circulating in the part of the Territory in which the application area is situated, or in any other publication that the Minister thinks fit, a notice containing: (c) the name of the applicant; (d) a description of the application area sufficient to enable it reasonably to be identified or a map upon which the proposed boundaries of the application area are indicated by reference to named geographical features; and (e) a statement to the effect that a person who has an estate or interest in relation to land comprised in, or land contiguous with land comprised in, an application area may, within 2 months after the notice is published in the newspaper or other publication, lodge in writing with the Minister an objection to the grant. (1A) If Part IIA or IIB applies, the relevant registered native title claimants, registered native title bodies corporate and representative Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander bodies are to be served with notice in accordance with section 57F or 57T, as the case requires. (2) The Minister may direct an applicant to serve a copy of a notice under subsection (1) on a person named in the direction. (3) A person who does not have an estate or interest in relation to land comprised in, or land contiguous with land comprised in, an application area is not entitled to lodge an objection to the granting of an exploration permit in respect of the application area . 13
RIGHTS OF PETROLEUM TITLE HOLDER The holder of a petroleum title has the right to: ¢ Occupy land for the purpose of exploring for petroleum in the title area (s29) Wagait Beach Community Breifing ¢ Access the title area by the shortest practical route and construct a road or carry out other works to ensure access to the title area. (s65) ¢ May enter land with such machinery, equipment and workmen as is necessary to mark out and construct the road (s65) ¢ Use the water resources of the title area for his domestic use and for any purposes in connection with his approved technical works programme and other exploration (s29), but must not use water artificially conserved by the landowner without consent. 14
OBLIGATIONS OF PETROLEUM TITLE HOLDER ( S 58) ¢ On entering the land the explorer should make all reasonable attempts to again contact the landowner or occupier of the land prior to commencing authorised activities. ¢ Fact sheets on petroleum exploration activities and procedures which Wagait Beach Community Breifing explorers must follow can be found at: http://www.nt.gov.au/d/Minerals_Energy/index.cfm?header=Energy%20Forms%20and %20Guidelines#pa ¢ A person shall not explore for, or engage in operations for the recovery of petroleum unless that person does so under and in accordance with a petroleum title. (s105) ¢ Conduct his operations and activities in relation to the title in such a way as not to interfere with the lawful rights or activities of any other person. ¢ Conduct all operations in relation to the title with reasonable diligence and in accordance with Good oil field practices, the approves work program ¢ Carry out the technical works program in such a way as to cause as little disturbance as practicable. ¢ Not interfere with existing roads, railways, telephone lines, power 15 lines and cables, water pipelines, dams, reservoirs or energy pipelines, tailing pipelines, storage containers.
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