Under fire ... coal seam gas exploration. Photo: Wolter Peeters
COAL seam gas drilling at a flashpoint site on the edge of the Liverpool Plains has been halted after the state's biggest coal seam gas operator, Santos, backed down, ending a three-week blockade by residents.
It is understood Santos has agreed not to drill exploratory wells at Spring Ridge, south of Gunnedah, until a detailed government study of the Namoi water catchment has been completed in April.
The compromise, brokered by the Nationals MP Kevin Anderson, was greeted as a victory by farmers involved in the blockade. On October 27, they parked vehicles across the entrance and had been maintaining the obstruction to stop drilling.
''This is the only blockade that has ever led to a coal seam gas company pulling out,'' said Tim Duddy, a Liverpool Plains farmer who undertook a similar blockade in 2009 to stop coalmining under his property.
Sydney Morning Herald
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