Blue Energy wins early approval to drill Bowen Basin gas field

Moranbah is the heart of Queensland’s coal industry and now a small gas firm hopes to make it a hub for gas production. But there’s still a long road ahead and some ferocious pushback.

Picture: Jeff Camden

An exploration company has secured a crucial approval to drill for coal seam gas in the Bowen Basin but still needs to clear more hurdles before it can proceed.

The state government granted Blue Energy an environmental authority this month to open 530 wells around Moranbah and Glenden, west of Mackay.

Blue Energy CEO John Phillips said he would now go to the Department of Resources for a petroleum production lease.

“The volumes (in the Basin) are such they can make a big difference to domestic gas supply and therefore price on the East Coast,” he said.

The small-cap company hopes to drill on the Sapphire, Central and Lancewood tenements, which together have a combined land area of about 31,278ha offering up 363 petajoules of reserves, or commercially recoverable resources.

The tenements hold a further 1278 petajoules of contingent resource.

Blue Energy's gas tenements in Central Queensland. Picture: Contributed

A pre-existing pipeline to Townsville means the company could supply gas immediately to the north but its East Coast aspirations hang on the construction of a pipeline connecting Moranbah with a point further south, most likely Gladstone or Wallumbilla.

A $5m feasibility study into the pipeline is under way and it is understood the government is presently reviewing a stage 2 assessment.

The dollar figure for the pipeline will depend on its final destination but it is likely to cost hundreds of millions.

Mr Phillips said a range of actors could build it out, including industry players, superannuation funds or a loan from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility.

A map showing the possible routes of a pipeline going south from the Bowen Basin gas fields. Picture: Contributed

“All the big energy infrastructure in this country was initially constructed and paid for by government,” he said.

“It’s nation-building stuff, it will provide jobs and employment.

“The other thing is people think that gas is simply a proxy for electricity generation, but it is not.

“It is actually manufacturing, plastics, fertilisers, glass.

“There is a lot of manufacturing that depends on gas and there is no substitute.”

While the company has secured an early approval, environmental groups are already moving to block any more drilling in the Basin.

Mackay Conservation Group climate campaigner Imogen Lindenberg said “polluting” gas pipelines risked the region’s lives and livelihoods.

Environmentalist Imogen Lindenberg outside the NAB branch in Mackay on November 11, 2022. Picture: Duncan Evans

“This new gas field will tear up more farmland, drain more groundwater and leave Queenslanders paying the price for generations to come,” she said.

“Blue Energy and its polluting fracking plans were shown the door in the Wide Bay and we will make sure this company faces the same fate in Central Queensland.

“We will be taking every action we can to prevent this climate and water wrecking project from proceeding.

“The Mackay-Whitsunday-Isaac region is particularly vulnerable to the worsening impacts of climate change so we absolutely need to stop the opening of a new petroleum basin on our doorstep.”

Blue Energy has not yet sought federal environmental approvals for the drilling.

Its environmental authority application states “hydraulic fracking will not be occurring in any capacity as a part of this project”.

Originally published as Blue Energy wins early approval to drill Bowen Basin gas field