Executive director petroleum Jeff Haworth was prompted to write the letter after local councils expressed concerns about the information being offered by anti-fraccing groups on social media and at community nights that conflate data on oil and gas exploration, CSG and hydraulic fracturing.

Haworth said among the misinformation being peddled across the agricultural and tourism region were around issues of land access, fraccing and well integrity.

"Land access rights and the landowners' inability to refuse access are being promoted strongly throughout the South West," he wrote.

"Petroleum companies are legally required to obtain consent from private land owners and occupiers before approval to undertake any activities on their land is granted. This consent can include agreements concerning compensation."

A model agreement was developed last year by a joint committee chaired by former WA deputy premier and Nationals leader Hendy Cowan to support agricultural productivity in areas being explored, and it was endorsed by WAFarmers, Pastoralists and Graziers Association of WA, Vegetables WA and the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association.

Peak bodies in the agricultural and petroleum sectors worked together for more than two years on the co-operative project.

Fraccing is also a contentious issue.

It has been undertaken in WA for the past 60 years without compromising health, safety or the environment, including an innovative frac using diesel at the Whicher Range field a decade ago.

"During that period, nearly 780 hydraulic fracture stimulation activities have been conducted without major incident," Haworth wrote, although he admitted that fraccing has become more visible in recent years.

"The technique of hydraulic fracture stimulation has also been promoted by some groups as a major risk to the environment and public health. This is being fuelled by images and examples related to CSG extraction in Queensland and overseas.

The DMP stressed that dewatering process used for CSG, often located within hypersaline aquifers, was vastly different to the fraccing in the Perth Basin which occurs 2-5km kilometres underground, well below the state's potable aquifers, which are typically 500-1000m below ground.

WA has some of the strictest regulations in the world relating to chemical use in petroleum activities, including during hydraulic fracture stimulation, and requires full chemical disclosure, which is made publicly available through the DMP website.

The same process requires that only chemicals with low toxicity and low concentrations are considered for use, as demonstrated recently when Buru Energy boss Eric Streitberg drank a glass of frac water for the cameras.

WA's well integrity measures are also stricter than many in the world include the modern principle of a multiple-barrier well design to ensure the effective prevention of fluid leaking from the well into the environment or from the environment into the well itself, and Haworth said a well leaking into the aquifer zone is considered to be "highly improbable".

Further, unlike the US where there are thousands of poorly regulated abandoned wells, WA requires that the integrity of wells is checked on a regular basis.

Haworth also said that poster images showing the 10,000 hectare Jonah tight gas field in Wyoming were highly misleading.

Not only does the poster purport to show abandoned shale gas wells, which does not describe Jonah, the field is still operating, and has done since the 1970s.

"This image of the Jonah field promotes the perception that a shale and tight gas industry in the State's South West will be developed the same way," Haworth said.

"Western Australia does not have such extensive pipeline infrastructure developed as the United States. Western Australia's regulatory framework for shale and tight gas would not permit a development with a similar surface impact."

The DMP stressed that WA's shale industry was still in its infancy, with any significant commercial production predicted to be at least five to ten years away, and likely even further away in the southern Perth Basin, were there are just four granted permits between Pinjarra and Busselton.

Pilot Energy owns EP 416 and EP 480 with Empire Oil & Gas and is looking at testing a multi-Bcf conventional gas target, but will probably require further 2D seismic, while EP 408 and EP 381 are owned by CalEnergy Resources around the troublesome 1960s-era Whicher Range gas field.

Further fraccing is not currently envisaged at Whicher Range.

Lastly, Wal Muir's Bunbury Energy has been offered STP-EPA-0132 in the shires of Capel, Dardanup and Donnybrook-Balingup.

Native title is still to be cleared, but the DMP says a number of studies have shown that hydraulic fracture stimulation would not be suitable in the particular geology of the area, and there are no indications of shale resources.

CSG drilling has taken place in WA in recent years, with Westralian Gas and Power drilling a number of wells in the South West last decade, only to conclude that CSG simply will not work in the south of the state.

Similar work in the northern Perth Basin has also failed to advance CSG.

Protest

The weekend's national Water4Life campaign is aimed at supporting Lock The Gate's claim that "Australia's water is under threat from risky gas and coal mining" by permanently damaging and contaminates water sources.

The protest aims to see people from across Australia park their cars along national highways and "make a noise that cannot be ignored" during the Federal election campaign between 10am and 2pm on Saturday, June 25.

Lock The Gate has been making inroads into WA's south-west recently, forming alliances with groups like No Fraccing WAy.

The seaside town of Dunsborough became the latest community in the south west to throw its support behind the Lock the Gate campaign, when a declaration was made by farmers that they would lock their gates to industry to stop them from acquiring their land or carrying out activity on their properties.

The campaign now has over 40,000 supporters and 250 local groups throughout Australia who want their communities to be free of resource development.

Gasfield Free South West WA said the group was frustrated with the current government and were looking for political representation to support their concerns.