Construction will be undertaken by principal contractor Clarke Energy, and is expected to create more than 200 direct and indirect jobs during the construction process, with additional staff required for operation and maintenance upon its expected completion at the end of the first quarter of 2011.
Bow Chief Executive John De Stefani said “The beginning of construction follows the successful award of a development permit from the Central Highlands Regional Council, which has welcomed the project as a boost for jobs and economic growth in the Blackwater and Emerald region.”?
Clarke expects to have completed bulk earthworks on the main pad, and pour the engine slab concrete, over the course of the next month.
“Bow sees the new power project as a model which could be replicated across the company’s strategic coal seam gas (CSG) fields in Queensland’s Bowen Basin in addition to the potential for larger scale integrated power generation developments,”? Mr De Stefani said.
The Blackwater Power Project will be supplied with CSG from Bow’s nearby Blackwater CSG Field, which has current certified CSG reserves of 1,382 petajoules of 3P and 59 petajoules of 2P net to Bow. The power project is expected to require around 2 petajoules per annum of gas.