South Australia’s gas supply challenge will not be answered simply by lifting a fracking ban two years early, one Victorian academic warns.
Professor Ranjith Gamage is Director of Monash University’s Deep Earth Energy Research Lab which studies sustainable resource extraction and clean energy solutions such as natural hydrogen, geothermal energy, and critical mineral recovery.
The lab specialises in eco-friendly approaches like waterless rock-breaking, carbon capture and storage, large-scale underground hydrogen storage, well decommissioning and reusing mining waste as sustainable construction materials.
“Australia cannot solve tomorrow’s gas challenges with yesterday’s technology,” Prof Gamage says.
“Conventional fracking uses enormous volumes of water while recovering only a fraction of the resource underground.
“The debate in South Australia is stuck in the wrong decade,” Prof Gamage says.
“The question is not whether to frack; it is whether we keep using a technology from the 1940s when much better alternatives already exist.”
He says that governments need to invest in next-generation methods of gas extraction, not just reissue permits for old technology.
“New fracturing technologies can deliver gas and critical minerals with a fraction of the environmental footprint,” he explains.
“Community concerns about contamination are understandable. Our world-first, non-explosive rock-breaking technology reaches the resource more efficiently than conventional methods, and without water injection.”
SA WANTS GAS BAN GONE
SA Premier Peter Malinauskas says the 10-year ban on fracking in the state’s south-east must be lifted early; a Bill has been introduced into State Parliament to lift it.
The ban was implemented by the former Liberal Marshall state government and confined to one corner of the state.
“It is my firm view that science and economics should dictate energy policy, not politics,” the premier claims.
He points to the current global oil shock and fuel crisis as reasons for upgrading energy supply security.
“The decision does not approve fracking, it removes a blanket ban,” he says.
“Groundwater protection is non-negotiable. If those standards cannot be met, the project will not proceed.”
Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis called on the Liberals to support their Bill; the Labor government needs the support of another party for the Bill to pass.
“The Liberals have been most vocal about the need to unlock new gas potential and safeguard energy security; they must now join the government in a bipartisan effort to do just that.”
The government says lifting the ban as soon as possible will allow planning for any future proposals to start but no fracking will be allowed.
According to the government, there have been more than 1300 wells fractured in the Cooper Basin since 1969 without any impact on underground aquifers and doesn’t see any new risks.
The decision has been criticised by groups, conservationists, farmers and communities and the government in Adelaide is promising talks with the South-East community; click here for that report.
An online session has already been organised for Tuesday, May 26; click here for the details.
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