Bloodwood Creek underground coal gasification project (lapsed)
Carbon Energy (Operations) Pty Ltd (Carbon), a wholly owned subsidiary of Carbon Energy Limited, sought approval to develop a large-scale syngas production facility using underground coal gasification (UCG) at the Bloodwood Creek project site, approximately 40 km west of Dalby in southern Queensland.
Syngas is a mixture of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, methane and ethene (ethylene).
Carbon had been operating a pilot UCG trial to produce syngas at Bloodwood Creek. On 29 March 2012, Carbon announced a strategic review that involved the suspension of operations at the Bloodwood Creek site.
Carbon was granted approval to prepare a voluntary environmental impact statement (EIS) for the full scale project and was issued the final terms of reference for its EIS on 10 May 2010. The EIS was to address the proposed larger scale production of syngas and 30MW of power generation, but not the other potential uses or markets for syngas.
On 18 February 2009, the then government released an Underground Coal Gasification Policy. The policy provided for a UCG pilot phase to gather the information necessary to assess the future viability of a UCG industry in the state. In particular, the policy made provision for three UCG pilot projects (including Carbon’s) to allow assessment of the technical, environmental and commercial viability of UCG technology.
An independent scientific expert panel was also appointed to report on the outcomes and findings of the trial activities of the UCG Pilot Projects.
Subsequently, all UCG activities were prohibited in Queensland following a policy decision announced by the Queensland Government on 18 April 2016.
The outcome is that the Bloodwood Creek UCG Project will not proceed, and its EIS process has lapsed.
Documents
- Final terms of reference (May 2010)
- Draft terms of reference (January 2010)
- Initial advice statement describing the project (December 2009)
Further information
For further information about the EIS process for this proposal, contact the EIS Coordinator on 13QGOV (13 74 68) or email eis@des.qld.gov.au