In the welter of coverage about the state budget, I initially missed this news about the state government promoting gas exploration in the North West (page 3) but it could have profound consequences.
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The Queensland government is pumping $27 million over four years on the Strategic Resources Exploration Program to expand resource exploration and development for gas in new basins and minerals in the North West Minerals Province.
Around $4 million will go to mineral geophysics to pinpoint the locations of potential new mineral prospects with $3.6 million to drive exploration for gas in the Georgina, South Nicholson and Isa Super Basins.
These basins are all in our backyard in the North West.
The Georgina basin lies mostly in the NT and pokes across the border towards Camooweal and Boulia, the South Nicholson basin is between Walford Creek and Century Mine while the Isa Super Basin is a South America-shaped geological basin from Century in the north down through Lady Loretta and following the Leichhardt river to Sybella Creek south of Mount Isa.
These so-called “frontier regions” are believed to be the next big source of tight gas, now that the Surat, Bowen and Cooper Basins are in production.
The state government is looking to the fact that there is a social licence to drill for gas in Queensland, unlike say in New South Wales and the Northern Territory where fracking is frowned upon.
With gas likely to play a bigger role in the nation’s energy mix as coal-fired plants come to the natural end of their lifecycles, the program will be music to the ears of a federal government desperate to find ongoing energy solutions.
Mount Isa may not be connected to the national electricity grid but it is connected to the eastern gas market via the Wallumbilla hub and its strategic importance will only grow with the new Northern Gas Pipeline from Tennant Creek.
Mines Minister Dr Anthony Lynham said this funding was part of the Strategic Blueprint for the NWMP due for release “mid 2017”. That is now, so this document should be released any day now, and is eagerly anticipated.
Derek Barry