Overlapping tenure

Abstract

Queensland is richly endowed with coal resources that have long supported the state’s thriving coal export industry. The more recent development and growth of the CSG industry, which shares an interest in coal resources, has brought into focus the need to find mechanisms that provide for co-existence between mining and gas proponents.

The present legislative framework in Queensland provides an overlapping tenure between coal mining and CSG proponents. This overlap is extensive, and presents concerns about the certainty of access to resources and security of tenure, which are keys to providing investment confidence.

The drainage of gas from coal seams for reasons of mine safety is long established, and when considered with incentives provided by measures to tax carbon emissions and the opportunity to use the energy value of CSG, there are clearly good reasons to find mutually beneficial ways to extract both coal and gas.

It is submitted that the key co-existence mechanism to allow for the optimal use of coal and CSG is linked to the nature of the resources themselves. That is, the very broad geographic footprint of CSG provides geographic and temporal flexibility to work in and around coal-mining projects.

These arrangements are facilitated by use of commercially based co-development agreements that consider co-ordinated production of both resources within a co-operative framework that provides for safety, communication, planning and, above all, certainty of process and access to resources. These agreements provide mutually beneficial, win-win outcomes and work towards ensuring best use of the state’s coal and gas resources.