The Baird government has cancelled two petroleum exploration permits for coal seam gas formerly held by Pangaea Resources in a bid to ease concern about the industry in the state.
Minister for Resources and Energy Anthony Roberts on Wednesday said the government had extinguished Pangaea's two petroleum exploration licences, numbered 437 and 476, covering about 15,600 square kilometres in northern NSW.
The electorates covered by the permits include Myall Lakes and the Upper Hunter for the 476 licence and the Northern Tablelands for the 437 licence. The electorates are held by Nationals MLAs Stephen Bromhead, George Souris and Adam Marshall respectively.
Of the two, PEL 476 was arguably the more controversial, covering much of the Manning River region surrounding AGL's Gloucester CSG pilot project, and extending as far as Taree and regions north of Maitland.
PEL 437 covered about 5600 square kilometres in a mostly pastural region of the state's central north, stretching from the Gwydir Highway to the Queensland border.
A spokesman for Pangaea said the unlisted miner had explored for CSG but had handed back its permit last month after finding little of interest to exploit.
"Pangaea concluded its exploration and handed back its permits in February," the spokesman said, adding it was up to the government to reissue the vacant permits or cancel them.
Minister Roberts said the relinquishing of the permits offered the government "a one-off opportunity" to pay "limited compensation" for the licences.
"Under Labor, almost half of NSW was covered with PELs or PEL applications, for just a $1000 fee with no protections in place for our water, agricultural land or environment," Mr Roberts said in a statement.
"The NSW Gas Plan has reduced this area to 15 per cent [from about 60 per cent]. We are fixing Labor's disgraceful legacy and mismanagement of the resources sector," he said.
A spokesman for Mr Roberts said the compensation paid for the two PELs was more than the $1000 fees paid, but declined to elaborate. The Pangaea spokesman said the money was a "small amount".
The government is talking to other companies about buying back their exploration permits, Premier Mike Baird later told reporters.
"[W]e are not going to talk about the cost at this point because we are still negotiating with other players in terms of buybacks," Mr Baird said.
"We are open to bringing these licences back and we want [CSG] to go into areas that we are satisfied it can go and the community is satisfied," Mr Baird said. "This is part of our pause and reset."
Controversial industry
Gas exploration has been a controversial issue for the government. The prospect of large protests against Metgasco's operations in the Northern Rivers region near Bentley prompted Mr Roberts to suspend the company's licence last year.
Santos has also copped a fine and faced protests over its CSG plans for Narrabri, while AGL's CSG operations near Gloucester continue to be dogged by contamination concerns and unease about the company's transparency.
John Watts, a spokesman for anti-CSG group, Gloucester Groundswell, dismissed Wednesday's announcement as "a cheap publicity stunt".
"It has nothing to do restoring integrity and accountability to the coal seam gas industry," Mr Watts said. "The areas being bought back have no commercial quantities of gas."
"If the Minister was serious about integrity and accountability he would immediately suspend AGL's CSG licence in Gloucester where it has no social licence, where it has failed to honestly consult the community and where it has been vandalising the beautiful environment."
"Once again the small community of Gloucester is being cynically sacrificed because it has few voters," Mr Watts said.
Labor, Greens
Labor is calling for a moratorium on CSG in the state and wants "no-go" zones for the industry in the North Coast and key water catchments, including Sydney's.
"The Liberals are trying to look like they're winding back CSG – in reality, these buybacks are just an opportunity for companies to cash in," Adam Searle, Labor's Shadow Minister for Energy, said.
"This has nothing to do with curtailing the impact of CSG on our precious land and water resources," Mr Searle said, adding the Liberals and Nationals still planned a "red carpet" for CSG in the state.
The Greens want a permanent and immediate ban on the industry in NSW.
Jeremy Buckingham, the Greens mining and CSG spokesman, said the government should reveal how much it has paid Pangaea.
"The Greens do not support any of taxpayers' money being paid to fossil fuel companies who have known for many years that the people of NSW are opposed to their toxic industry," Mr Buckingham said.
"If the government supported legislation introduced by the Greens to allow licenses to be cancelled without compensation in the public interest then taxpayers would not have to foot this bill."
With Nicole Hasham
<a href="/interactive/2015/nsw-election/electorates/electorates.html?el=Sydney" _rte_href="/interactive/2015/nsw-election/electorates/electorates.html?el=Sydney">Key facts on NSW electorates</a>
