Arrow sets path forward with new commitments

CEO Cecile Wake said Arrow’s Commitments to Surat Basin Landholders outlined not only how the company would meet its regulatory compliance obligations but also made additional commitments which were well beyond statutory requirements.

“Arrow is deeply committed to achieving genuine co-existence where both agricultural businesses and gas can thrive together,” Mrs Wake said.

“These commitments reflect the additional measures that Arrow is taking to achieve genuine co-existence on the high-value, intensively farmed land where many of our operations will take place.

“The multi-well pad and deviated wells model that Arrow developed in conjunction with our landholder forums is overwhelmingly positive for co-existence and minimises surface impacts on high-value agricultural land.

“This model also gives landholders much greater flexibility about the location of well pads (often on the edge or corner of fields), minimising interruption to cultivation.

“Arrow has acknowledged that, despite the benefits of deviated wells and multi-well pads for co-existence, mistakes were made in the early implementation of the model and that Arrow needs to do better - we have listened carefully to our landholders’ concerns and these commitments are designed to build a stronger foundation upon which the benefits of co-existence can be more fully realised.”

Arrow’s additional landholder commitments include:

• improvements to Arrow’s Area Wide Planning Process to ensure that there is full transparency on the proposed location of deviated wells, including early and ongoing engagement with landholders who may have deviated wells traversing deep beneath their property
• the provision of individual, property-specific baseline ground surface data packs to Arrow landholders containing historical LiDAR data obtained prior to the commencement of gas operations and access to updated LiDAR data twice-yearly so they can easily track any changes in topography and location-specific gradients
• commitments about how Arrow will engage in good faith with landholders to address any potential future compensable impacts, including any subsidence claims and its willingness to support independent expert review if requested by the landholder
• providing all landholders with deviated wells deep beneath their property with the benefit of an industry-agreed indemnity for third-party liability associated with gas infrastructure.

Arrow is also working on the development of a template form of voluntary deviated wells agreement, in consultation with the GasFields Commission, agricultural peak bodies, APPEA and government departments.

“The voluntary deviated wells agreement is something that, if the template can be agreed, we would like to be able to voluntarily offer to landholders with deviated wells in circumstance where the legislation does not require a conduct and compensation agreement, as a demonstration of our commitment to co-existence and to give contractual force to the additional commitments that Arrow has made,” Ms Wake said.

“Arrow has always recognised that its tenures overlap high quality agricultural land and, as such, we have worked closely with our landholder and community groups over the last ten years to refine our co-existence model.

“Our new commitments are the next step in our co-existence journey and we look forward to ongoing, transparent and constructive engagements with our landholders as our project and operations mature.”

Arrow Energy Pty Ltd
Arrow Energy is an integrated coal seam gas (CSG) company. Arrow explores and develops gas fields, produces and sells CSG and generates electricity. Arrow has been safely and sustainably developing CSG since 2000 and supplying it commercially since 2004. The company is working to meet demand for cleaner burning fuels through gas supply.

Arrow is owned by Shell and PetroChina (50/50).