The comments, reported by Bloomberg, are a revision of AGL's announcement in August that it expected first gas in the third quarter of 2017.
The delay follows the stalling of a pilot test at the company's contentious Waukivory project after BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes - banned under resources legislation in Australia) were found in flowback water taken from two of four wells and an above ground storage tank.
The find spurred the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate, with AGL maintaining that the chemicals did not come from its fraccing fluid and that they were probably naturally occurring.
As published on AGL's website, BTEX has previously been found in baseline groundwater tests carried out before the start of the Waukivory pilot project at levels of about 30-60 parts per billion in the Gloucester Basin.
The company is awaiting the outcome of the investigation, meanwhile, the stalling of the pilot project means it cannot go ahead with Gloucester.
Gloucester is touted by the company as having the potential to supply more than 15% of New South Wales' gas needs.
AGL hit by carbon tax repeal
Meanwhile, AGL announced yesterday its underlying profit after tax increased by $60 million, or 24.8% for the December 2014 quarter due to its September 2 acquisition of Macquarie Generation, but the company was also adversely affected by the reshuffling needed due to the carbon tax repeal.
Also included in the company's quarterly profit announced yesterday was the benefit of higher wholesale gas sales and margins that were offset by the impact of the removal of carbon.
The federal government passing legislation on July 17 last year to repeal the carbon tax cost AGL to remove the calculation of the carbon tax from customer statements and also wrote off previously capitalised costs associated with the original implementation of the carbon tax.
AGL also incurred $11 million worth of restructuring costs before tax, recognised mainly in its retail business in relation to the closure of energy stores and in Merchant Energy, predominantly related to the closure of the LPG extraction plant at Kurnell.
AGL said the increase in electricity volumes resulting in "more normal weather" compared to the corresponding period was offset by "the continued decline in the average consumption of energy".
The 27.8% average drop in revenue per megawatt hour across both retail and business and wholesale was also due partly to the carbon tax repeal.
Fuel rates also increased 10% due to higher mine maintenance costs at Loy Yang and the inclusion of Macquarie compared with the generation mix in the prior corresponding period.
And while the company made up some ground on the Moranbah gas project (MGP) and North Queensland Energy (NQE) joint ventures, with operating EBIT contributions from these losing only $2 million compared to $6 million in the prior corresponding period, this was partially offset by opex increases.
Operating EBIT contribution from its Silver Springs conventional oil and gas interests in the Surat Basin - including underground storage, oil and gas exploration interests in the Cooper/Eromanga and Galilee basins and the Spring Gully JV - lost $2 million compared with no loss in the prior corresponding period.
On the upside, operating EBIT contribution from the combined Cooper/Eromanga and Galilee Basin interests and the Spring Gully JV enjoyed a $2 million profit compared with a $1 million loss in the prior corresponding period.
AGL put this down to increased Cooper/Eromanga oil sales and Spring Gully gas sales, along with reduced Galilee expenditure.
In NSW, AGL had a lower EBIT contribution largely due to reduced gas sales revenue from its Camden gas project - though this too was partly offset by lower opex.
