On Tuesday, Southern Cross University announced the publication of the first peer-reviewed study into fugitive greenhouse gas emissions from coal seam gas fields in Australia.

Two years ago the university put out its preliminary findings in the study, which looked at two CSG fields, one in Casino, New South Wales, and the other in Tara, Queensland. The study was slammed by industry and government because it identified significant coal-seam gas leakage in both fields. Martin Ferguson, then the minister for energy and resources, accused the two scientists behind the study of being motivated by “short-lived media opportunities”. The industry complained to the university about it. 

Now the trail-blazing study has been peer reviewed. The Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association — a.k.a. “the voice of Austalia’s oil and gas industry” — put out this press release. Crikey’s business editor Paddy Manning pulls it apart. (You can see a larger version of the image here.)