PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Oil and gas major Santos would spend some A$20-million in upgrading the project sites, equipment and processes of recently acquired Eastern Star Gas to ensure that the operations in the Pilliga state forest met best practice standards.

Santos this week submitted a detailed report on the Eastern Star operations to the New South Wales government, which included external scientific tests and analysis.

The report identified what Santos labelled an “unacceptable culture” of Eastern Star accepting minor spills, failures in reporting, and the possibility of unapproved land clearing on some of its sites.

The report also included the results of detailed investigations into soil conditions surrounding Eastern Star’s Bibblewindi water treatment plant, in the Pilliga.

“I want to make two things clear to the community. First, none of the process failures or impacted vegetation that we have identified in our review of Eastern Star are acceptable to Santos, and we can appreciate why some local residents have been critical,” said Santos VP for Eastern Australia James Baulderstone.

“Secondly, the key point arising from our detailed review is that despite these process failures, the impacts are limited and will be remedied,” he said.

Baulderstone noted that the extensive testing and analysis released to the New South Wales government showed that recent claims about dangerous toxicity levels in the Pilliga were misleading, and have caused unnecessary concern in the community about coal seam gas.

“The claims ignored the fact that the trace elements highlighted are naturally occurring in the Pilliga. In the impacted areas around the Bibblewindi plant, the trace elements remain at levels well within health and safety guidelines,” he added.

However, Baulderstone admitted that Eastern Star’s practices were not up to standard and that Santos would be taking action to ensure much higher standards of operations and reliability were maintained.

Santos was also preparing a detailed rehabilitation plan for its land, which would be submitted to the state government, and the company would start rehabilitation of the land as soon as the plan has been approved.

Santos finalised its acquisition of Northern Star in November last year, after completing a A$924-million takeover. The Eastern Star properties made Santos the largest natural gas reserve position in New South Wales.
 

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