The 2011 figures were released by APPEA eastern chief operating officer Rick Wilkinson at the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences Outlook 2012 conference in Canberra on Wednesday and show record employment numbers for the industry.

According to the 2011 industry statistics, 12,113 people are employed in the CSG sector while in Queensland alone, the industry recruited 2409 people in the second half of 2011, or 93 people every week.

"As we continue to see jobs lost in the car-making, tourism, airline and manufacturing sectors, it is difficult to overstate the significance or importance of this investment or the role it will play in shaping the Australian economy of the future," Wilkinson said.

"Demand for clean, abundant, reliable and affordable energy sources - both within Australia and throughout our region - is strong and no one expects it to wane in the foreseeable future.

"As a result, we have in just the past few years seen LNG projects worth in excess of $180 billion commence construction in Australia, with $46 billion worth of this being derived from Queensland CSG."

Staying in Queensland where most of the CSG action is, the industry committed capital investment at the rate of more than $30,000 per minute last year.

Two projects worth $US30 billion were sanctioned last year and were expected to create 11,000 construction jobs in addition to 2000 permanent jobs during the ongoing operation of the project.

The $15 billion QCLNG project, sanctioned in late 2010, is also expected to create 5000 construction jobs and around 700 permanent positions during operation.

While land access is an ongoing issue for the industry, it signed just under 400 access agreements with landholders in Queensland in the last quarter of 2011, bringing the number of agreements in place to 2459.

The figures also showed there was not one formal dispute of access between the industry and a landholder in either New South Wales or Queensland.