AGL Energy Limited (AGL) has today urged protestors at its Gloucester Gas Project site to undertake their protest in a safe manner. Mike Moraza, Head of Upstream Gas, said: "We acknowledge people's right to protest and we are committed to continuing to talk to the community about our activities. We understand that people have concerns about coal seam gas and we are committed to explaining better our activities to local communities.

"In the meantime, we urge protesters to also respect our right to go about our activities in an orderly and, most importantly, a safe manner and for them to also do so.

AGL's current drilling program is for gas exploration and is not linked to the 110 gas production wells which were approved earlier this year by the independent Planning Assessment Commission and which were subject to judicial review. "We hold approvals for this exploration program to be conducted on private land and have landowner access agreements in place," said Mr Moraza.

"We'd like the community to k now that we already have a comprehensive groundwater monitoring network in place with about 25 bores that have been gathering data for the last 12 months. In addition, seismic surveys have been used to site these bores and to build our groundwater understanding. This gives us real site specific information about the groundwater conditions across the area.

"What this exploration program will allow is even better data so that if gas production proceeds, it is done so to safely protect water sources."

The current exploration program is called the Waukivory Pilot at Forbesdale. For more information about the project visit the Gloucestor Gas Project website.

About AGL

AGL is one of Australia's leading integrated renewable energy companies and is taking action toward creating a sustainable energy future for our investors, communities and customers. Drawing on over 170 years of experience, AGL operates retail and merchant energy businesses, power generation assets and an upstream gas portfolio. AGL has one of Australia's largest retail energy and dual fuel customer bases. AGL has a diverse power generation portfolio including base, peaking and intermediate generation plants, spread across traditional thermal generation as well as renewable sources including hydro, wind, landfill gas and biomass. AGL is Australia's largest private owner and operator of renewable energy assets and is looking to further expand this position by exploring a suite of low emission and renewable energy generation development opportunities.