Huge gas field opportunity

ADANI Coal protests aside, one of the most interesting aspects of the Developing Northern Australia Conference 2017 yesterday was about a potentially huge gas field in the Gulf of Carpentaria off Cape York Peninsula near Bamaga.

Gulf Energy managing director Wolfgang Fischer, in an abstract, said Northern Australia’s development had for a long time been seriously constrained by limited access to an affordable, reliable source of energy in the region.

He said many, if not most projects, were reliant on imported oil as the primary energy source, such as the aluminium smelter at Gove.

Gulf Energy applied for and was granted the Q/23P exploration permit to evaluate the petroleum potential of the previously unexplored Bamaga Basin in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

The company has gathered extensive geological, geophysical and other technical data, including the recording and interpretation of about 5000km of modern seismic data.

Analysis reveals that the basin contains at least nine prospective targets that could contain trillions of cubic feet of natural gas.

The company concludes Q/23P “is a very exciting exploration opportunity offering a potential, new, long term, reliable source of affordable energy”.

Gulf says it could be a key gas supplier to eastern Australia, helping to meet a forecast major gas shortfall in 2025.

It says the development of and production from successful discoveries in Q/23P can be expected to bring enormous economic benefits to the communities of northern and northwestern Queensland.

It’s worth keeping a close eye on. Nick Dalton nick.dalton@news.com.au