Camden Gas Project

Rehabilitation

The Camden Gas Project has been safely supplying gas from a total of 144 wells to Sydney homes and businesses since 2001. No additional wells have been drilled since 2012.

After a review of business activities, AGL announced in February 2016 that the Camden Gas Project will cease production in 2023. The Rosalind Park Gas Plant and gas wells will be progressively decommissioned and the sites rehabilitated.

Well decommissioning will require the use of a ‘Workover Rig’ (pictured below) and some auxiliary equipment on site. No drilling or fracture stimulation (‘fraccing’) will occur.

As at May 2023, we have 28 still producing, 4 either waiting for, or in the process of, decommissioning, and 112 fully decommissioned. The remaining wells will be progressively rehabilitated in the ongoing decommissioning.

AGL Rig #1 decommissioning EM28 wellsite.

How AGL decommissions coal seam gas wells: 

Decommissioning and rehabilitation is undertaken with a high level of regulatory oversight by the NSW Government’s Department of Planning and Environment, Department of Regional NSW and the NSW EPA as lead regulator, and to standards set in the NSW Government’s Code of Practice for Construction, operation and decommissioning of petroleum wells, found here.

The code of practice requires that petroleum well decommissioning ensures “the environmentally sound and safe isolation of the well, protection of groundwater resources, isolation of the productive formations from other formations, and the proper removal of surface equipment." The code of practice and petroleum production lease conditions require that:

• the surface equipment is removed,
• the subsurface water aquifers are kept isolated from each other and from the coal seams (hydrocarbon zones),
• risk to future mining of the coal seams is minimised.

Coal seam gas well rehabilitation:

In rehabilitating its well sites, AGL will ensure:

• The equipment at the top of the well is safely removed.
• Purpose-specific cement, which complies with the standards set by the NSW Government’s Code of Practice for Construction, operation and decommissioning of petroleum wells, is placed inside the well from bottom to top in stages.
• This cement seals the wellbore and adds to the integrity of the well.
• The well casing is cut off, at least 1.5 metres below the surface, so that it does not interfere with agricultural and other future land uses. A steel cap, containing data such as the name of the well, the well depth and when it was decommissioned, is welded to the top of the casing.
• The decommissioning works are overseen by the NSW Department of Planning & Environment (DP&E) and the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) which is the lead regulator for petroleum activities in NSW, and conducted within stringent health, safety and environment guidelines. A full report is provided to the regulator once all decommissioning works have been completed for each well.