A major Queensland oilfield could hold more liquid gold than first expected, but motorists will have to wait a few years still for fuel made from Queensland oil to bring down prices at the bowser.
Premier David Crisafulli toured the Taroom Trough project — near Miles 340km west of Brisbane — on Wednesday to inspect scaled up exploration works.
Already six wells are feeding 300 barrels of condensate — a high quality light crude — to the nearby Eromanga refinery each day.
Early results show the average daily rate of oil and gas produced in the first 90 days of operations is in the top 1 per cent of the world, raising confidence the 43,000sq km trough will be commercially viable to develop.
Mr Crisafulli acknowledged it would be some time before oil from the Taroom Trough could put downward pressure on fuel prices.
“This is about a long-term vision to do what governments may should have done a long time ago,” he said.
“What I can control is long-term vision and the opportunity for Queensland to take back its fuel security.”
Taxpayers cash could also be used to build the common user infrastructure needed to transport and refine oil and gas from the trough.
Mr Crisafulli revealed the government received 50 expressions of interest from its call for investment into liquid fuel refining and storage capacity.
Four are being progressed, including the opportunity for a new refinery.
The oil exploration project was first thrust into the spotlight amid the escalating fuel crisis caused by the war in Iran, with the Crisafulli government announcing it would help fast track the development to get oil to refineries by 2028.
Mr Crisafulli said the Taroom Trough could be Australia’s first major new oil province since the 1970s, and would reverse the trend of closing refineries.
“We reached the point in this country where we were celebrating knocking over refineries, and I think that was at a time when we reached peak stupidity level,” he said.
“I want to return here in the next few months to see some really good early signs turn into full-blown opportunity, and I want to make sure that every single step of the fuel process is here in Queensland.”
It ramped up earlier this year when the Mr Crisafulli awarded the first exploration rights for a 750sq km tenement – about the size of Singapore.
Shell QGC Australia vice-president Krishna Venkatesan said frustrated motorists would eventually be able to pump homemade fuel into their cars.
“Something that we can look for Queensland going forward, that the fuel from the basin can fuel Queensland cars,” he said.
“We definitely think in the next couple of years they should.
“They’re already supplying to the market, but it’s only that the scale will come through in the next couple of years.”
Extracted in full from: https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/qld-politics/taroom-trough-emerges-as-australias-biggest-oilfield-in-50-years-amid-fuel-security-push/news-story/b6fa8fd4310bc792fea9c1973925794b
