Metgasco has posted a $3.8 million loss for the last year, largely made up of its legal bills and administrative costs involved in its battle over the state’s eleventh-hour decision to cancel drilling approval for drilling on the Greater Mackellar structure.

It won legal action in April, but so far there appear to have been few signs of its project moving forward.

As painful as the latest loss is, it is a far-cry from its $85.9 million loss from 2014, caused by its decision to writedown the value of its Clarence Moreton Basin CSG deposits near Casino, in the face of the NSW government’s policies to stymie development over several years.

Metgasco moved all its reserves to resources, and now has 2792 petajoules (2C) it wants to develop to support the east coast gas market, but the gentle canter of bureaucracy seems determined to thwart it at every turn, despite the galloping gas crisis over the horizon.

Despite previous assurances that everything was on the level, Metgasco has been unable to secure all the permissions needed for its Richmond Valley Power Station and Casino gas project its production licence, PPLA9, or renewal of a key permit.

The development approval for the projects was awarded in June 2010, and the licence award was announced in September 2012, but while Metgasco has accepted it and paid all the fees the government is still to issue the formal licence documents.

While siteworks have begun, Metgasco says there appear to be issues with native title, although it says it believed all the issues resolved last decade.

“The OCSG [Office of CSG] would not put its concerns in writing but was prepared to meet and provide a map showing some small isolated areas in which it considered native title issues uncertain,” Metgasco said.

It has offered to excise the areas from the production licence.

Metgasco also continues to wait for the renewal of PEL 426, which expired in February 2014.

It has paid the bond and resubmitted its application, however it says there are some issues with the new NSW gas policy, with several new requirements it is simply not possible for any company to satisfy.

The company’s operations last year were largely limited to its court battles, as it has been effectively blocked from working in its 4556sq.km of permits beyond well and facility decommissioning and rehabilitation.

The only wells remaining are Corella-P01 and Harrier-P01, which have been suspended as future CSG production wells.

The company still intends to drill the Rosella-1 well, to investigate the conventional and tight gas potential of the Greater Mackellar structure, and it has completed an Archimedes aero-magnetic gravity survey, but the company is unsure when drilling will begin.

Farm-out discussions with an interested party are effectively paralysed, however the company says its negotiation of a drilling contract is sufficiently advanced to allow the well to be drilled within several months of a decision to proceed.

The company says it has a number of irons in the fire for investments outside NSW, however its interest will depend on its discussions with the NSW government.