You Yangs oil field in firm sights

Andrew Mathieson
A PROPOSAL to mine oil “above ground” next to an iconic regional park at the You Yangs has enraged environmentalists.
They have demanded a series of public consultations before a mining company conducts first tests on the site.
Regal Resources is investigating converting brown coal into oil at Oak Park farm, a few kilometres north of Lara’s You Yangs.
Company Director Rohan Gillespie believes it’s strategy will turn the world oil industry upside down if proven successful.
The Melbourne company hopes its underground coal-to-liquids technology will produce 10,000 barrels of oil a day.
Regal Resources plans to eventually develop a 200-well oilfield covering more than 16-square kilometres of abandoned cropping land.
But Geelong Environmental Council president Joan Lindros said environmentalists would block Regal Resources unless it could prove the project would not damage the You Yangs.
“I just think this whole issue needs a lot more information, investigation and environmental studies to ensure the process doesn’t create some sort of destruction to the land,” Ms Lindros said.
“It seems to me to be a very new and controversial process and I think the public needs to have a lot of information about it.”
Staff at the You Yangs told the Independent they were had not been informed about the oil plans.
Land manager Parks Victoria did not respond to questions about whether Regal Resources had approached the organisation about the project.
Mr. Gillespie said the proposed oil facility would have “low emissions” and little impact on the environment.
“The key is we are not digging up the coal,” he told Sky News’s Eco Report program.
“The coal stays in the ground, we drill down to the coal and we treat the coal in the ground.”
Research suggested the brown coal was high in moisture content, which was released as steam during the refining process. The steam could then be used to generate electricity.
“This could work at a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the omission”.