A SNAPSHOT providing a clear picture of Queensland’s petroleum and gas industry has just been released.
The 19-page reference guide developed by the GasFields Commission shows the size of the industry, its contribution to the economy, water usage and other useful information.
It shows that the petroleum and gas industry has contributed $418 million in royalties to the state government since 2010, invested $4.3 billion in exploration since 2007 and supported 1380 regional business in 2016-17.
Of the about 14,450 gas wells drilled in Queensland, 76 per cent of the active wells are in the Surat basin, 12pc in the northern Bowen basin and another 12pc in the Cooper and Eromanga basins.
At the end of June 2017 there were 5711 conduct and compensation agreements in place with $387m paid to landholders in compensation.
The vast majority of groundwater take from the Surat Cumulative Management Area continues to be agriculture.
Almost all the water take as part of gas production is being used for beneficial purposes including other agricultural production, aquifer recharge and industry.
GasFields Commission chief executive officer Carolyn Collins said the snapshot used a wide range of data collected from across government and industry, fact checked and then reproduced as an easy to read reference guide.
There has been a lot of inaccurate and misleading information circulated in the past and this report should go a long way to correcting and clarifying the real state of the industry.
- Caryln Collins, GasFields Commission
“There has never been a central point for the collection of data for the Queensland gas industry in the past with different agencies, industry bodies and companies all collecting the information for different reasons and often in different formats,” Ms Collins said.
“What we’ve done with the snapshot is pull that data together into one document to provide a clearer picture of the industry.”
Data collection and dissemination was one of the recommendations of the Scott review into the GasFields Commission in 2016 and supported by the government.
“Accurate information about the industry will assist landholders, gas companies and government to make informed decisions about the future direction of the industry,” she said.
“There has been a lot of inaccurate and misleading information circulated in the past and this report should go a long way to correcting and clarifying the real state of the industry.”
