Rehabilitation
After a review of business activities, AGL announced in February 2016 that at Camden, it will extract gas from its existing wells enabling closure of the facility in 2023. The Camden site and wells will be progressively decommissioned and the sites rehabilitated.
AGL has released the Stage One schedule for the decommissioning and rehabilitation of coal seam gas wells at the Camden Gas Project.
These activities will require the use of a ‘Workover Rig’ (pictured below) and some auxiliary equipment on site. No drilling or fracture stimulation (‘fraccing’) will occur.
This has now been completed and the next phase is progressing.
The Camden Gas Project has been safely supplying gas to Sydney homes and businesses since 2001. A total of 144 wells have been drilled, with 86 currently producing. Six wells were completed in 2016 and a further 19 were rehabilitated between 2017 and 2018.
Currently, 60 wells are operational, 9 are waiting on or in the process of being decommissioned and 75 are decommissioned. The 60 operational wells will be progressively rehabilitated in the ongoing decommissioning.
This work is undertaken with a high level of regulatory oversight by the NSW Government’s Division of Resources and Energy and the NSW EPA as lead regulator, and to standards set in the NSW Government’s Code of Practice for Coal Seam Gas.
The Stage One well rehabilitation program in 2017-18 was released in 2016. The Camden Gas Project Community Consultative Committee (CGP CCC) met on 14 March 2018 and considered AGL’s intent to change one well listed in the Stage One decommissioning and rehabilitation program. This means that the Mount Taurus 05 well will undergo decommissioning and rehabilitation instead of the Menangle Park 01 well.