Bridgeport Energy says any oil and gas extracted from new exploration land in Queensland's Channel Country will remain in Australia, with the company's chief executive setting out a potentially years-long path to supply. ABC reported on Tuesday (13 October) that the company was the preferred tenderer for an extra 270,000 hectares between Innamincka and Thargomindah, along the South Australian-Queensland border.
The tender award was announced on 2 October, rather than being a new allocation today. The Queensland Government's original announcement covered five petroleum and gas exploration areas in the Cooper-Eromanga Basin and Taroom Trough, intended to support future domestic supply. The fresh reporting details Bridgeport's domestic-market assurance and the work it expects before drilling.
Chief executive Christian Lange told ABC it could take the best part of two years to obtain an authority to prospect, followed by preparation for seismic surveys. The company would use seismic waves to assess whether there were commercial flows of oil or gas underground. "Within a couple years, we'd aim to drill the first well," he said.
The blocks extend an existing operation rather than taking Bridgeport into an entirely new basin. Industry Queensland's account of the awards identified Bridgeport, Vintage Energy and a joint venture including Amplitude Energy among the successful tenderers. It also reported Lange's description of the new blocks as an extension of the company's established Cooper-Eromanga presence.
In the government's announcement, Lange described Bridgeport as entirely Australian owned and operated, with 891 square kilometres of net oil-producing acreage across nine production projects in the basin. He said the company saw potential for future oil and gas production in the new areas and wanted to help meet Queensland's and Australia's long-term energy needs.
The environmental setting remains central to consultation. ABC reported that the latest sites were outside the protected Channel Country flood plains, although parts were within 5 to 10 kilometres of the boundary. Western Rivers Alliance, a cooperative of graziers, traditional owners and conservationists advocating against new oil and gas activity on those flood plains, wants assurances about their protection.
Alliance coordinator Riley Rocco told ABC the group was neutral on mining outside the flood plains and acknowledged that keeping activity off them met its position. Its concern was how nearby industrial activity would be managed to avoid adverse effects on significant river and flood plain areas, rather than an objection to all exploration beyond the protected boundary.
Lange said he wanted to work closely with landholders, including graziers and traditional owners, before exploration began. He told ABC that groundwater, fauna, flora, roads and other land disturbances would be considered. Resources Minister Dale Last framed the wider land release as a way to develop future supply and reduce energy costs, while Bridgeport's next steps remain obtaining its exploration authority and testing the underground resource.