Fears gas protests could come here

GAS exploration company Metgasco has said it will try to come up with workable solutions to land access issues if its proposed Lions Way pipeline goes ahead.

This comes after a woman chained herself to a bulldozer to stop a gas company building a pipeline through a rural residential property on Queensland’s Western Downs.

Protesters formed a human barricade at the Tara Estate, south of Chinchilla, yesterday to stop the Queensland Gas Company (QGC) building a 16km pipeline to take coal seam gas from five wells already in the estate to the nearby Kenya gas processing plant.

South of the border, the NSW Farmers’ Association also has concerns regarding the potential impact of Metgasco’s proposed pipeline, and the Environmental Defender’s Office has warned that landholders might have no right to refuse the company entry to their land.

The pipeline is one of two options being considered by Metgasco to provide for the “commercialisation of gas resources discovered in the Casino area”.

Responding to questions from The Northern Star, Metgasco chief financial officer Glenda McLoughlin said the company did not have a position on what it would do if a landowner refused to give the company consent to build the pipeline across their land.

“It’s a hypothetical situation we haven’t faced yet. Like every other situation we have faced to date we would try to come up with a workable solution for everyone,” she said.

At a recent public meeting in Casino, Ms McLoughlin said Metgasco’s land access agreements were voluntary.

However, she would not give a direct yes or no answer when asked whether the company would force landholders who did not wish to have wells or pipelines on their property to comply.

Ian Ratcliff, of the Environmental Defender’s Office, said the legal situation for a pipeline was different to that for a coal seam gas well.

“If Metgasco takes all reasonable steps to enter into an agreement with a landowner, but is unsuccessful, an easement or the land itself could be compulsorily acquired,” he said.