The coal seam methane outfit is developing the 30MW Richmond Valley gas-fired power station, which will be supplied by gas from the company’s adjacent CSM field at South Casino.

As a major project, the control of all planning and development consents will be assumed by the minister, under the new State Environmental Planning Policy (Major Projects) 2005 legislation.

Metgasco told the Australian Stock Exchange that this approach would streamline and expedite the environmental assessment and approvals process for this project.

Over the past quarter, Metgasco says it has made good progress on several technical and operational issues relating to the development of the Richmond Valley power station.

These include finalising the location of the plant, finalising engineering design and resolving network connection matters.

Metgasco has also recently started inviting infrastructure investment companies to participate in ownership and development of this project.

The Richmond Valley Power Station will supply ‘environmentally-friendly’ gas-fired power to the town of Casino and will generate NSW greenhouse gas abatement credits, the company said.

The project will also improve the reliability of electricity supply in the Casino area.

Over the next month, Metgasco will start the environmental assessment process for this project.

“The next six months promise to be very exciting for Metgasco as we add to gas reserves through our reserves expansion drilling program and begin to bring our gas reserves to market,” managing director David Johnson said.

“We have commenced our reserves expansion drilling program with well MMMC-01 currently underway. Gas flow rates continue to build on our horizontal wells.”