By Philip Wen
AGL Energy has defended its coal seam gas exploration in the Hunter Valley after dozens of protesters vented their fury outside the company's annual meeting.
With police keeping a close watch, cries of ''AGL go to hell'' went up as the company's executives and shareholders arrived for the meeting in Sydney yesterday.
Macquarie Bank's non-executive chairman, David Clarke, who owns a home and winery in the popular tourist region, said the Hunter Valley Protection Alliance wanted AGL to conduct an independent environmental impact assessment before it expanded its operations.
Mr Clarke said he was concerned about the environmental impact of the coal seam gas extraction process known as fracking and he was not satisfied with AGL's responses.
''Our impression of AGL is that they are using loopholes and whatever they can do to avoid addressing the issue on the community basis.''.
He said if AGL did ramp up gas production in the Hunter, it would spell doom for the region's tourism.
''If it becomes a production area, I think it means the death of tourism in the Hunter,. If you were going up to the Hunter and it was a gas field, would you bother going?''
AGL announced on Wednesday it had made significant gas discoveries in the Hunter Valley, best known for its wine and tourism.
The process of fraccing - using high-pressure liquid to fracture the coal to release the gas - has brought protests from landowners in Australia and the US, where harmful levels of hydrocarbons have been found in drinking water wells.
AGL's chief executive, Michael Fraser, said the company stood by its operations and its record of compliance with environmental standards and regulations. He said AGL had been producing 6 per cent of NSW's natural gas resources from coal seam gas for a number of years with little impact on the environment.
''We know what we're doing,'' he said. ''The bottom line is if we thought that our activities would damage the environment or harm the communities in which we operate we simply wouldn't pursue them until we resolved those issues.''
AGL said it expected its underlying net profit to rise more than 10 per cent this year to between $450 million and $480 million.
It reiterated its plans to take part in the privatisation of NSW's electricity assets, but only if the ''price was right''. AGL would conduct a rights issue to raise capital if successful.