The EPA said late yesterday it would conduct a public review over planned seismic surveys in the Mid West, after it received more than 300 public submissions from Frack Free WA and Lock the Gate in response to Beach Energy's proposed Zemira 3D survey. 

"The preliminary key environmental factors require further information, the impacts occur within a large spatial area and the biodiversity in the area is particularly high and complex," the EPA said.

"Assessment is required to determine the extent of the proposal's direct and indirect impacts, and how the environmental issues relating to flora and vegetation, terrestrial fauna and social surrounds may be managed."

It throws a spanner in the works and could potentially cause a slight delay to Beach's plans, at a time when exploration activities are under considerable strain and state governments are attempting to encourage gas exploitation for domestic markets. 

Beach proposed conducting the seismic survey across 97,000 hectares, about 25km southeast of Dongara, some 300km north of the Perth metro area. 

"The intent of the Zemira 3D Seismic Survey is to collect a high-quality 3D dataset that can be used to map geological formations to assist in the identification of conventional gas reserves and detailed reservoir development," the EPA said yesterday. 

However, Frack Free WA and Lock the Gate WA have been actively campaigning against the seismic, citing concerns any successful potential reserves found would be fracced. 

This is despite the EPA stating very clearly, on multiple occasions, there were no plans to allow fraccing in any areas other than the legally allowed regional in northern WA. 

"We know there are shale and tight gas reserves here, and that companies would need to frac to extract those difficult to access gas reserves," Lock the Gate WA coordinator Jarrad Thomas said. 

Thomas cited a report published in 2015 by the WA state government, which said some of the formations in the region contained conventional oil and gas resources as well as shale and tight gas resources. 

Since the report was first published five years ago, further conventional gas resources have been found in deeper levels, bringing new prospectivity to the region, however there has not been renewed interest in fraccing.