THE major Australian gas producer, Santos, can now take over the company behind a $300million high-pressure coal seam gas pipeline planned to run through the Singleton shire.
Eastern Star Gas shareholders voted last week to accept the takeover.
The 286 kilometre pipeline will run from the Pilliga Forest area, in central western New South Wales, where environmental studies have just found 20 threatened animals and a migratory bird.
Eastern Star spokesman Peter Fox said the company’s environmental studies for the entire project, a liquefied natural gas export terminal at Kooragang and the Pilligra district were well underway.
A spokesman for the environmental group the Northern Inland Council, David Milledge said the Eastern Star proposal involved the clearing of thousands of hectares of Pilliga cypress and ironbark forests.
Among the 20 threatened species found in the group’s study were the nationally vulnerable Pilliga Mouse and South-eastern Long-eared Bat.
Mr Fox said Eastern Star’s activity in the Pilliga Forest was meticulously planned to avoid areas of high ecological value, minimise impacts where possible and complete the process by rehabilitating disturbed areas.
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