For the December quarter the statistics revealed that Queensland’s gas scene directly employed 6821 full-time people and 33,762 contractors.

NSW’s gas scene was employing just 201 people directly and 57 contractors for that period.

Queensland also had a total of 5228 wells compared to 232 in NSW, while the sunshine state also had 4516 land access agreements in place compared to just 285 in CSG-fearing NSW.

The advanced pace of Queensland’s CSG scene, which will fuel three LNG projects costing $70 billion on Curtis Island over the next few years, has led to community contributions from the petroleum industry totalling $124 million while this figure is a paltry $1 million in NSW.

APPEA eastern Australia chief operating officer Paul Fennelly said NSW should be learning from the Queensland experience.

“Queensland has set a benchmark other eastern Australian states must match if they are to address supply shortfalls by safely exploring and producing local natural gas resources,” he said.

While the number of gas-related jobs is dropping in Queensland as projects move from construction phases into operation, the state’s policy regime is expected to create more opportunities.

“There remains enormous potential for the state, through an appropriate regulatory framework, to attract further resource investment in exploration and production,” Fennelly said.