Forums across western Queensland have heard coal seam gas (CSG) production could begin as early as 2014.

Officials from gas companies spoke at community forums at Barcaldine and Longreach in central-west Queensland on the weekend.

Graziers, environmentalists and council leaders were among those attending the weekend events.

The forums have been told there is potential for 40,000 wells to be drilled in the state, if all of the projects already approved go ahead.

While exploration is underway in the Galillee Basin, AGL is the only company that has moved to production testing, with five pilot wells north-east of Ilfracombe.

AGL spokesman Andrew Falkner says the target is to reach commercial production in two years.

"Probably more recently looking at around 2014, now that's an ambitious target for us to produce gas from the Galilee in that time frame," he said.

Gasfields Commission

AGL says it hopes the State Government's new Gasfields Commission leads to a more "reasoned" debate about CSG in Queensland.

The Government announced the new Land and Water Commission last week to restore confidence in the CSG sector by balancing the interests of companies, farmers and environmentalists.

Mr Falkner says it is a step in the right direction.

"It's a good idea - I think they've got a good person trying to run it - it is John Cotter," he said.

"Anything that gives the community a bit more confidence about what we are trying to do and have a more reasoned debate about what we're trying to do and what the risks are [is worthwhile].

"There are elements of the debate that are trying to scare and misinform."

Author and journalist Paul Cleary told the forum that CSG was "risky" so there should be a more measured approach to development.

"Whereas what we're doing in Queensland is really rolling it out at a rapid rate, potentially 40,000 wells over a small area," he said.

Mr Cleary told the forums that approved projects in Queensland already included almost 20,000 production wells but that could double.

He says there is not enough regulation for a boom of that scale.

"DERM [the Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management] lost 70 people in the last two years to resource companies - that shouldn't be happening," he said.

Tor McCaul, from a group of companies exploring in the basin, says they are being audited.

"I know of three or four in the last year that have had an environmental audit," he said.

"Even to drill a well here, we might have 80 or 100 conditions put upon us."

Communication 'important'

David Brown from Desert Channels Queensland says stronger communication into the future will be important.

"What we are probably thinking about now is what does the conversation look like going on from here," he said.

"What kind of discussions do we continue to have with the companies.

"Each of the companies have got swathes of prospective country ... anywhere from three to 30,000 square kilometres that they are working over."

Compensation

Meanwhile, peak rural lobby group AgForce says it will continue to oppose plans by the State Government to force landowners to publicly disclose compensation arrangements with gas companies.

AgForce has warned against State Government plans for a public register of land access agreements and will seek meetings with ministers to discuss its concerns.

AgForce spokesman Drew Wagner says it is unfair to compare different farming enterprises and their individual arrangements with CSG companies.

"When you negotiate these agreements, you negotiate on behalf of your own business and enterprise," he said.

"Therefore we don't believe that that information should be available to everybody because regardless of the commercial-in-confidence nature, it also means we're comparing one farm with another across Queensland when we all know that no two properties are the same."

Transparency

Dr Gavin Mudd from the Monash University says there needs to be more transparency in CSG regulation.

He says concerns over the impact on water have not been adequately addressed.

"To me I think the disappointing thing with the way CSG has been developed so far is that there hasn't been as much transparency about the existing coal seam gas operations, what their impacts have been to date, so that we can actually get a better understanding of what are the likely impacts of a much bigger scale industry in the future," he said.