The Queensland government has awarded new exploration acreage for petroleum, gas, critical minerals, and coal across regional Queensland as part of a major drive to unlock new resource supply.
The new exploration areas include four key petroleum and gas tenders in the highly prospective Taroom Trough to strengthen domestic energy security.
Successful tenderers for the gas blocks include Denison Gas in partnership with OGT Energy, Shell QGC, and a joint venture comprising Omega TN, Tri-Star Stonecroft, and Beach Energy Queensland.
Alongside natural gas expansion, the state is advancing its critical minerals sector. Idemitsu Australia has been appointed preferred tenderer for two vanadium exploration blocks covering 269 square kilometres northeast of Julia Creek in the North West Minerals Province.
In the coal sector, a consortium of CAML Resources, Nippon Steel Australia, and Foxleigh Coal secured a 54-square-kilometre exploration area north of Blackwater near their existing Foxleigh operations.
Premier and Minister for Veterans David Crisafulli said providing a stable regulatory framework will restore investor confidence and unlock Queensland’s resource potential.
“These are the catalytic moments in our history that will propel Queensland into a new era of opportunity,” Crisafulli said.
“With 51 of the world’s critical minerals, more than $1 trillion in resource potential, strong environmental protections, and thousands of highly skilled workers, Queensland is quickly emerging as a global competitor.”
Minister for Natural Resources and Mines Dale Last said the successful tenders demonstrated growing commercial appetite to explore and develop regional projects after years of policy uncertainty.
“Whether it is oil, gas, critical minerals or coal, exploration is where every new resource project starts, and opening new acreage is about building that pipeline for the future,” Last said.
Shell QGC Head Krishna Venkatesan welcomed the land release, confirming the company looks forward to expanding appraisal activities in the Taroom Trough to support domestic market growth.
Further exploration acreage in the Cooper and Eromanga Basins has also been opened, with additional tender outcomes expected shortly.
