OREANDA-NEWS. Australia's New South Wales (NSW) state government has bought back a petroleum exploration licence from UK independent IGas for an undisclosed sum, as part of its coal-bed methane (CBM) gas buy-back scheme launched last year.

PEL 445 is located in the Northern Rivers region of northern NSW and covered about 5,560km? and was issued in 2004, said the NSW government.

The buy-back scheme has reduced the footprint of CBM exploration areas in NSW to less than 8pc, compared with more than 60pc prior to March 2011 when the current Liberal-National coalition government was elected.

IGas held the PEL 445 licence through its Australian subsidiary Dart Energy, which is in the process of exiting all its Australian exploration permits that are all in NSW. Dart has also sold PEL 459, 460, 463 and 464.IGas said that it has also sold PELs 461, 456 and 458 but is awaiting regulatory approval for these deals.

There has been considerable community opposition to CBM extraction in NSW on environmental grounds, while neighbouring Queensland state has seen three LNG plants built with a combined capacity of 25.3mn t/yr that use CBM as the primary gas feedstock.