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APLNG Gas Supply Security Project

About the Project

Australia Pacific LNG Ltd (Santos) proposed to construct a maximum of 7,700 coal seam gas wells in Central and South East Queensland within the Surat and Bowen basins. The project was expected to extract approximately 6,000,000,000 litres of water a year at peak production and span an area of 476,492 hectares.

The proposal had the potential to impact surface water, groundwater and threatened species.

 

Our Work

Stage 1

February 2021 – We made a submission to the Commonwealth Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment that addressed impacts to water resources.

Our submission addressed these key issues:

  • inadequacy of using a regional-scale model for determining local-scale impacts;
  • lack of monitoring bores in the project areas;
  • lack of information in relation to faults and their influence on groundwater conditions;
  • lack of information on groundwater-dependent ecosystems; and
  • long-term cumulative impacts to groundwater levels.

 

Results

February 2021 – The Department found that the project was likely to have a significant impact on water resources, threatened species and migratory species. The federal government referred this project to the Independent Expert Scientific Committee on Coal Seam Gas and Large Coal Mining Development.

 

Grassroots Movement

At each stage of the consultation process, grassroots community groups played a key role in organising a response to APLNG’s proposal. This included an important submission from Lock the Gate Alliance, which addressed impacts to water resources and threatened species.

 

Stage 2

June 2026 – We made a submission to the federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water on the inadequacy of public consultation with First Nations People on this project. We raised the following key issues:

  • Fairness in the environmental assessment process means providing people not just with an opportunity to be heard, but with the substantive ability to be able to participate in the environmental assessment process. It also means that the information published in Public Environment Reports (PER) must be sufficient to enable an informed assessment of potential impacts
  • The final environmental report did not provide sufficient information to allow the Minister and relevant persons to make an informed assessment of potential impacts because it did not:
    • include up-to-date cumulative impact modelling of coal seam gas (CSG) projects in the vicinity of the project area that have commenced, or are expected to commence
  • address the information gaps identified by the Independent Expert Committee on Unconventional Gas Development and Large Coal Mining Development (IESC) in 2021,11 which are necessary for a robust, evidence-based assessment of potential impacts to water resources;
  • address baseline information requirements set out in the IESC Information Guidelines, which were updated in 2024.
  • It was unsupported by the evidence that the proponent identified and consulted with affected indigenous groups. To the contrary, the National Indigenous Australians Agency previously advised the Minister that while the proponent developed a Cultural Heritage Management Plan (CHMP) with the Iman People, “other traditional groups affected by the project including the Gaangalu Nation people, Bidjara people and Kanolu people may have been excluded by the process.”

 

We requested that public consultation be deferred until up-to-date cumulative impact modelling for the Surat Cumul