Dart Energy Australia chief executive Robbert de Weijer said the company wanted people to realise the Fullerton Cove drilling was a small ‘‘test appraisal program’’.

Mr de Weijer said any commercial drilling would be ‘‘a number of years away’’ and then only after ‘‘community consultation, public scrutiny and government approvals’’.

Despite Dart’s assurances, Fullerton Cove residents’ spokeswoman Sue Walker said many residents were not convinced.

Ms Walker said that even if it was only test drilling now, full-scale production at Fullerton Cove would render property in the town ‘‘worthless’’.

‘‘The environmental concerns over the water table, salinity, subsidence – regardless of what Dart says – remain real but on top of that, if they end up building a spider’s web of drilling rigs out behind our houses, we won’t able to live in them and nobody is going to want to buy them,’’ Ms Walker said.

Residents raised at the Dart meeting a United States government agency report that attributed land subsidence at Galveston Bay in Houston, Texas, to ground-water pumping as well as oil and gas extraction.

Fullerton Cove resident Lindsay Clout raised US Geological Survey report’s findings because he believes Galveston Bay has a similar geographical appearance to Fullerton Cove.

‘‘The problems in Houston with land subsidence were mainly connected with removing water but it also said gas extraction was a contributor as well.’’

Mr Clout said that residents from Fullerton Bay would oppose negotiations with any coal seam gas drilling companies.

The coal seam gas industry took another hit at the weekend when entrepeneur Clive Palmer – whose business empire is built on iron ore and coal – lashed out at the gas drive at a National Party conference in Canberra.

Mr de Weijer said he was ‘‘sure that some people who attended are not yet convinced of the merits of CSG, and we respect that’’.