The Australia Pacific LNG consortium of companies has advised relevant landholders, the Queensland Government, Western Downs Regional Council and Maranoa Regional Council of the results of chemical analysis of samples taken from water bores on properties where exploration wells that have recently been hydraulically fracture stimulated in the Surat Basin, west of Miles.

In an issued statement today, Australia Pacific LNG comprised by the BG Group PLC Origin and a consortium including Santos, Petronas and Total, has assured the residents based on the new results of a study that downplays the unsafe levels of the chemical BTEX (benzene, toluine, ethylbenzine, xyline) were detected in eight coal seam gas wells in the Surat Basin.

"Sampling has been conducted at the bores of landowners on whose property traces of BTEX were found in exploration wells. The analysis of these samples did not identify unsafe levels of any of these chemicals," the company statement issued to the Australian Stock Exchange indicated.

The advise came amidst the conditional approval given by Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke on the project, which he noted are hinged on the companies meeting close to 300 hundred strict conditions.

BTEX is known to be a cancer-causing agent, the environment group Friends of the Earth said in a separate statement urging government to conduct its own study of the detected chemical leak in eight coal seam gas wells in the Surat Basin.

The company, on the other hand said: "due to the physical separation between the water bores and the fracture stimulated well, Australia Pacific LNG is confident the fracture stimulation operations undertaken on its exploration wells have not had any impact on landholder water bores.

Australia Pacific LNG has sought and received independent verification of this view. The State Government regulator, the Department of Environment and Resource Management, has reviewed the analysis and has not raised any issues with this conclusion.

The liquefied natural gas venture project of Santos Ltd. and BG Group PLC Origin and partner ConocoPhillips in Queensland

Environment Minister Burke has accepted that the projects could generate billions of dollars in export revenue for Queensland and more than 10,000 jobs but has empahsised the potential environmental impacts were his major concern and would continue to monitor.