Elisabeth Champion
Penola environmental activists are celebrating news that Beach Energy is leaving, having packed up their Church Street office and made plans for the Katnook Gas Plant to be mothballed in the coming months.
The company has declared that it has no plans to continue with gas exploration in the South East in the future and in a statement, it confirmed that although Katnook plant is still producing gas into the South East, with the natural decline in production, they will temporarily “shut-in” the Katnook processing plant in the next three to six months.
“Supply of gas to the South East customers will not be impacted by the shut-in of the Katnook plant, as the South East pipeline connects into Port Campbell in Victoria, where Beach has already added significant production capacity in 2021, with more planned in the coming year,” it said in a statement.
“Beach today accounts for about 12 per cent of the total production of the total East Coast Gas Market (which includes SA) which will grow to about 16 per cent in the near future.”
Chair of the Limestone Coast Protection Alliance Angus Ralton, of Penola, said Beach Energy leaving was good news for the whole community.
“Their [Beach Energy’s] time here created division in the community, created unrest in the community, created uncertainty for farmers and created uncertainty for the communities thinking about their water supplies,” he said.
“It was an overall bad move from a company that doesn’t know better.”
The work will not stop for the Alliance however, with Mr Ralton and his team waiting in the wings for Beach Energy’s return.
“We will be waiting just in case – the last time they said they were gone, they came back and did the exploration near Furner – we will be waiting,” he said.
“We will always be here for the community, and even though we have lives to lead and will get on with that, we are only a phone call away.”
The group has been vocal opponents of the company, with fears the energy company’s exploration of gas in the region could lead to fracking, and it was their pressure on the former State Liberal Government that led to the introduction of a 10 year moratorium on fracking in 2018.
In the lead-up to the 2022 State election, the then Opposition Leader and now Premier Peter Malinauskas reaffirmed Labor’s commitment to the moratorium.
Beach Energy Community Manager Jon Conti said the company will begin assessing opportunities for future additional gas production at the Katnook Gas Plant using data obtained from a recently completed Dombey 3D Geological Survey, but the Penola office will close this month as there are “no current activities planned in the region”.
“We are still running Katnook Gas processing facility, and that will continue its operations, but we have no exploration planned,” he said.
“Our plan is to wait for the Dombey 3D seismic survey and work out what resources, if any, that we have there to connect in the future to Katnook.
“Geological surveys provide us with a map of what is beneath the ground, allowing us to target future gas reservoirs with more precision.”
The results of the survey are not expected until late 2023.
Despite having no exploration planned, they will maintain their current permits and obligations in the area.
“We will retain tenure on our permits in the Penola region – some of those permits we run 100 per cent Beach and some are with a joint venture partner – but we have no plans to exit out of those permits or our obligations in the area,” he said.
Mr Conti said Beach Energy will continue to maintain a local presence in the region with local resident, Lucille Bailey, available to support the community and information sharing in the region.
“We are closing the Penola office, but we will still be in the region,” Mr Conti said.
“The interpretation of the Dombey survey may yield opportunities for future energy production. If this happens, the Penola office shop front may be re-opened.”
Mr Conti said furniture from the office had been distributed to local community groups.
