Two companies have been granted a licence to explore for shale gas near Casterton in Victoria's far south-west.
The State Government granted the licence to explore the almost 2,000 square kilometre area, on the condition that Beach Energy and Somerton Energy are given permission by the area's native title holders.
The managing director of Somerton Energy, Hector Gordon, says it could be up to two years before any drilling occurs.
He says extracting the gas would not necessarily require the controversial hydraulic fracturing process to be used.
"There could be some hydraulic fracturing proposed at some stage but that's a fair way off at the moment," he said.
"It may well be that we just find conventional oil and gas and there's no fracturing required."
没有评论:
发表评论