With the hotly debated impact of industry, agriculture and global warming on the Great Barrier Reef, Origin started the process to see the development of the Spring Gully South-West area within PL418.

Commonwealth environment authorities are inviting public comments on whether the Spring Gully SW needs to be referred for a full review under federal environmental legislation, although existing activities for Spring Gully have been previously referred under the EPBC Act and determined to be not a controlled action, and Origin will be banking on more of the same.

In the scheme of things, Spring Gully SW is modest, with a mere 11 wells and associated gathering

infrastructure planned to link the wells to PL 195 and PL204, areas where CSG production has been ongoing for more than a decade.

The area, about 65km north-east of Roma, will be included in the 38 hectare footprint of the wider 3755Ha Spring Gully project area,

Origin says the 11 wells will be drilled over nine months and are expected to operate for around 30 years.

Petroleum activities are scheduled to start later this year, with gas production likely to commence by mid-2017.

Spring Gully has for gas processing facilities capable of handling up to 372 terajoules per day and one water treatment facility capable of dealing with 12 megalitres per day.

Spring Gully is planned for full development over four stages, although areas in the south-east and north-east still at the conceptual stage, and subject to exploration drilling to prove up prognosed gas resources.

The problem perceived for CSG projects is that the best areas are scheduled for development up front, with less understood and less prospective areas left for later in the life, and CSG naysayers in the industry say that could be the Gladstone LNG plant’s undoing further down the track.

Origin’s plan is to develop Spring Gully SW, and then move to develop the area to the north-east for 2018 and the south-east in 2019.

Origin says the four development areas will not significantly increase the scale of activity beyond the proposed 400-600 wells previously approved, which will require between 4-14 processing facilities to support production.

Origin managing director Grant King said at the APPEA Conference in Brisbane that APLNG train two is now substantially complete and was close to starting up.