The Queensland Government continues to drive national gas policy, with more companies seeking domestic gas and more exploration licences to tackle onshore shortages.
Queensland Minister for Mines, Dr Anthony Lynham, said another company is on the hunt for domestic gas in regional Queensland, following the award of a gas exploration licence.
“Senex Energy has been awarded 153km2 of land near Miles to explore for gas for Australian-supply only,” Dr Lynham said.
“This comes on top of Senex Energy’s Project Atlas near Wandoan, the first project to develop from our domestic-only policy initiative.
“Senex Energy has already announced two sales contracts with domestic manufacturers to be supplied from Project Atlas.”
Dr Lynham said a Santos/Shell joint venture, Galilee Energy and debutante Sajawin have also won the right to explore for gas across more than 2600km2 between Miles and the border town of Inglewood.
“Queensland’s been doing the heavy lifting on gas supply for several years now, and we’re keeping up the pace,” Dr Lynham said.
“We want to see more petajoules of Queensland gas in pipes, more jobs in Queensland, and our gas driving jobs in Australian manufacturing.
“I also soon expect to be able to announce the outcome of a national first tender where that gas will be supplied exclusively to a manufacturer.
“We’ll also be continuing our campaign for more federal investment in pipelines and other gas infrastructure to help get more gas to market to drive down prices.”
A new round of bids has also been called to explore a further 3700km2 of land mainly near Springsure in central Queensland. More than a quarter of this land is only for domestic gas supply.
Dr Lynham said he encourages the nation’s biggest petroleum companies to bid for this latest tender.
“This government, like you, wants to keep growing Queensland as a reliable and affordable gas producer,” Dr Lynham said.
“Together we can help meet the gas demand of Australia’s manufacturing sector, and stimulate jobs and the economy.”
Queensland already supplies around 25 per cent of the domestic east coast gas demand.
Since 2015, the State Government has released more than 39,000km2 of land for gas exploration nearly a quarter of it guaranteeing the gas will be for Australian buyers.
Apart from Project Atlas, another four exploration projects are on the hunt for gas guaranteed for the domestic market:
- Armour Energy a total of 775km2 of proven-gas rich land on the Roma Shelf
- Chi Oil and Gas on 5266km2 near Quilpie
- Santos/Shell joint venture on 393km2 near Surat
- Central Petroleum on 77km2 near Miles
Submissions to tender close 8 August 2019, and more details can be accessed found at here.
