A report that 'thoroughly dismantles' the claim that coal seam gas is a clean energy source has allegedly been suppressed by the company that was contracted to publish it.

 

Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE) has accused Worsley Parsons of suppressing the report it was commissioned to publish, which allegedly contains findings that show that previous research which supported CSG's environmental credibility are out of date and inaccurate.

 

A PR company working on behalf of Worsley Parsons released a public statement that claimed that BZE had chosen not to proceed with the report, a fact that BZE has denied.

 

BZE has called on Worsly Parsons to "immediately deliver the complete and unaltered original document completed two months ago to Beyond Zero Emissions as they are contractually obliged to do."

 

The report comes as the Australian Production Petroleum Exploration Association (APPEA) released an independent research study that:

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  • Coal combusted in a subcritical, supercritical or ultra-supercritical pulverised coal plant produces (respectively) 87%, 51% and 43% more life cycle GHG emissions per MWh than CSG-LNG combusted in a combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant.
  • For every tonne of CO2 emissions associated with the CSG-LNG production and use, up to 4.3 tonnes of emissions are avoided when the gas is used instead of imported coal by Chinese power generators;
  • A CSG-LNG project exporting 10 million tonnes of LNG per annum to China could avoid more than 37 million tonnes of global CO2 emissions each year.

 

However, BZE has slammed the findings as inaccurate and misleading, and that their report contradicts the APPEA's findings.

 

'The report's conclusions are contrary to claims made by APPEA boss Rick Wilkinson in The Australian, where he claims that "activists have a blind spot when it comes to the gas industry's greenhouse benefit," Matthew Wright, executive director of Beyond Zero Emissions said.