We have begun using treated water from our natural gas exploration and appraisal operations to irrigate at our Leewood property south of Narrabri.
Pivot irrigation is being used on a 50 hectare section of the property which has been planted with barley.
In order to extract natural gas from underground coal seams, the pressure in the seam must be released. This is done by removing the salty water which is also found in the seam. This water is not the water typically accessed by agricultural users and the community, it comes from much deeper underground, and in the Narrabri area is about a half to a third as salty as seawater.
This salty water is now being treated at the recently completed reverse osmosis plant at Leewood. There are a number of checks and balances in place during the process to ensure the water meets Australian and NSW irrigation standards before it is beneficially reused for irrigation.