Arrow struggle to hit target

Tony Knight from Arrow Energy chats to Prime TV while people concerned about the impacts of coal seam gas make their presence felt outside the meeting.

Arrow Energy held a "community information session" in Lismore last Friday. The public and the media were not invited but around 200 concerned members of the community turned up and made their voices heard anyway.

Arrow, a subsidiary of Shell and PetroChina, invited selected people to a presentation at Invercauld House, including representatives of Lock the Gate, Northern Rivers Guardians and Sue Higginson from the Environmental Defender's office.

Lismore MP Thomas George had suggested to Arrow that the meeting be open to the public, but vice president of exploration Tony Knight said the company had decided to only invite 'targeted' guests.

"Arrow's policy, whenever we work in an area is to hold community information sessions, so everywhere we go, at least once a year, sometimes twice a year, we come down and have a public forum where we will invite the people in, tell them who we are, what we do and respond to their concerns," Mr Knight said. "We want to make sure the people we invite in - in this case we're responding to concerns of Keerrong residents - don't want to make things into a protest forum. We want to exchange information here and be heard. We don't just want to be shouted down."

Mr Knight claimed the "temperature" of the crowd justified not inviting them in the first place.

"We're not afraid to respond to concerns, we've got the answers," he said.

In March Arrow Knight told The Echo that CSG projects in the Northern Rivers were "years away" and that the company would focus on Queensland in the Surat (around Dalby) and Bowen (around Moranbah) Basins, where the gas is easier to get out of the ground.

However, on Friday Mr Knight said they were continuing to explore the region at a "low level".

Ms Higginson said Arrow made it clear in their presentation that they were looking to sink two more wells, near the Coraki, Lismore or Geneva/Kyogle areas.

Arrow also stated their intention to return to Keerrong in 2013, when they would move to the next phase and drill pilot wells to test the gas.

Ms Higginson said Arrow had recently been approaching land-holders to negotiate land access agreements but were having trouble finding appropriate areas with willing land-holders.

"The last time we saw Arrow at a public meeting they said they would not take people to arbitration, but rather seek agreement with land-holders, but when they were questioned on Friday they said they would reserve their right to a legal approach," Ms Higginson said.

On Wednesday Arrow released a statement saying it had "taken another step closer ... to realising its multi-billion dollar project to convert CSG to liquefied natural gas (LNG) at Gladstone in central Queensland.

"Arrow's Vice-President for LNG Hilary Mercer said that a tender had been issued for the preliminary design of a six kilometre long tunnel to transport gas and other utilities from the Gladstone mainland, to the liquefaction facility on Curtis Island. The tunnel is part of the Arrow LNG project."