OPINIONS surrounding conventional gas exploration in the south-west remain divided as the expiration date on the state's moratorium on onshore gas drilling looms.
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Corangamite, Warrnambool, Moyne, Glenelg and Southern Grampians councils are expected to begin deliberating whether the region should be opened back up to onshore drilling as early as this month.
The current ban in place, set by the Andrews Government, expires on June 30.
Friends of the Earth, Protect the West and other local community groups are set to campaign for its extension, including a rally in Warrnambool on February 8.
"We have until March to build a strong voice demanding that the state government acts to protect our state by extending the onshore gas moratorium for another five years," event organiser Pat Nesbitt said.
It comes just days after Prime Minister Scott Morrison signalled a greater federal government push on states like Victoria and NSW to drop their moratorium on onshore gas exploration, as the NT has done.
Corangamite Shire Council was the first of the south-west councils to declare its support for the ban to be lifted, following latest research that suggests the Otway Basin has the "potential" for gas supply.
Mayor Neil Trotter said while the council upheld its anti-fracking position, gas was crucial to the region's economy.
"We do want to see the ban lifted because we've got three gas plants in the shire and they are big employers in the region," he said.
"The world is transitioning to renewable energy but its not there yet, there's still a demand for natural gas and renewables are yet to meet that peak demand.
"The Port Campbell area and the Otway Basin are quite under-explored compared to Gippsland which has been supplying Victoria for many years."
Latest reports prepared by a team of geoscientists and community engagement staff based at the Warrnambool Deakin University campus found the basin between Warrnambool and Port Campbell had the "greatest potential for onshore conventional gas".
But Dartmoor beef farmer Michael Greenham, also a spokesperson for No Gasfields Lower Glenelg, said the moratorium should stay in place.
"Our position is that we want to see the moratorium retained, we don't want to see onshore gas explorations in the south-west, mainly due to climate change," he said.
"We need to go to a renewable system as quickly and as expeditiously as we can. We still have an estimated 30 years of supply from our current offshore fields and while it's true that onshore drilling puts less chemicals down into the ground to facilitate the gas to come out we are still concerned about the effect on the water table.
"The commercial benefit of gas extraction is a reality, but the value of the south-west's high rainfall and the agricultural production in our area is only going to increase. It's a greater commercial imperative to maintain that than threaten it with an alternative industry that is a short term industry.
"Gas is a dead-end street and a dead-end industry."
More than 7100 rock samples have been analysed so far to help estimate Victoria's "undiscovered conventional gas potential", according to the Victorian Gas Program reports.
Exploration wells have been drilled in the Port Campbell vicinity and adjacent offshore areas, which have so far found six 'commercially viable' storage sites.
In May 2018 the state government invited the petroleum industry to apply to explore five un-drilled areas in Otway Basin state waters from Port Campbell to the South Australian border, totalling 1318 square kilometres.
Permits to drill are still being assessed. Successful bidders will be announced in early 2020.
Two stages remain in the state gas program in 2020, which include stakeholder and community workshops and planning recommendations for the Otway and Gippsland basins.
A government spokeswoman for state Resources Minister Jacyln Symes told The Standard the Victorian Gas Program was using "world-class science and technology to obtain a clear picture of the state's gas resources".
"The program is on track to deliver its findings to government in the first half of this year, to inform decisions about potential onshore conventional gas exploration," she said.
"We make no apologies for backing our farmers and banning fracking permanently.
"We'll continue to call on the Commonwealth to put Australian consumers before export and activate the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism."
Both the Victorian and Commonwealth governments recently approved several exploration and production licences off the Victorian coast, a move aimed at giving 'more certainty to the state's gas market', the spokeswoman said.
Investigations into the current offshore gas plants at Port Campbell, owned by Beach Energy, found it created $31 million of economic value in the Great South Coast region in 2018-19.
The Otway Gas Plant is one of six gas plants in Victoria that processes gas from offshore conventional gas fields approximately seven kilometres north-east of Port Campbell, which makes up around 11 per cent of the state's annual gas processing.
In the 2019 financial year the plant produced around 25 per cent of the state's daily gas demand.
The Victorian Gas Program stakeholder advisory panel for onshore conventional gas is due to meet again this month.
Warrnambool's Extend the Moratorium On Gas Drilling protest will be held from 10.30am to 11.30am at the Warrnambool Civic Green on Saturday.
Guest speakers include Jemila Rushton, Dr John Sherwood, Professor Dr James Dunbar and councillor Kylie Gaston.
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