https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2022-01-22/new-kimberley-fracking-proposal-under-review/100774542
It is the second application for fracking in the region since a moratorium on the practice was lifted in 2018, with a proposal from Texan-based Black Mountain Energy currently under assessment by the EPA.
Curtin University researcher Roberto F Aguilera said if proven to be viable, Theia Energy's proposal had the potential to develop into Australia's largest oil project.
"It could theoretically be a huge project when you consider the resource of nearly six billion barrels of oil and compare that with the proven oil reserves in Australia that are around two and a half billion," he said.
"But of course, it's one thing to have abundant resources; it's another thing to be able to access them."
There has been a lot of speculation about the potential for Theia Energy's Great Sandy Desert project, located in the in the north west's Canning Basin — which has some of the largest reserves of onshore oil and gas in the country.
A project fact sheet produced by the Perth-based company and dated 2018 suggested that of the tens of billions of barrels of oil estimated to be locked in the shale rock on their petroleum lease, six billion barrels were recoverable.
The oil find is described as "unconventional", meaning it is locked in dense rock that will need hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to allow the oil to flow to the surface.
The company, which has been contacted for comment, also previously published a conceptual graphic showing a network of wells, pipelines and a new port on the Kimberley coast to support the project if it was to successfully scale up.
Dr Aguilera, who is also a petroleum consultant, said the idea had promise but there were many financial, logistical, and social licensing challenges ahead for this fledgling industry.
"That includes upstream infrastructure to be able to produce the resource, but also the midstream installations like pipelines to be able to deliver it to a market," he said.
"Not to mention other factors like environmental and public acceptance, which are also very important in determining a company's social licence to operate.
"Without that licence development becomes very difficult, as we've seen in many parts of the world."
Dr Aguilera said building infrastructure like pipelines was particularly costly but with oil prices holding strong at nearly $90 per barrel, this could tip the balance in favour of the project.
To construct this pipeline across the Kimberley is likely to cost $1.5 Billion. Thousands of gas-fracking wells would be required to underspin such a pipeline. This would mean an industrialised landscape from near Fitzroy Crossing to Broome. The Kimberley would look like the Texas oil and gas fields.
Methane (CH4): Methane is emitted during the production and transport of coal, natural gas, and oil. Methane emissions also result from livestock and other agricultural practices, land use and by the decay of organic waste in municipal solid waste landfills.
However, with a near-term commitment to cut emissions by just 26 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, Australia's ambition is considered insufficient by almost any measure.
Labor is calling for stronger 2030 targets, although the opposition won't say what those targets should be until after the Glasgow conference.
Others have been clearer. The Business Council of Australia has backflipped on earlier calls to go slow on climate action and is now calling for a 46-per-cent cut by 2030.
Some in the government have called for stronger targets too. Liberal MP Dave Sharma, for example, suggested a 2035 target of at least 40 per cent, which pulls off the neat trick of implying that the government needs to exceed its 2030 target without explicitly repudiating it.
Australia has been smashed with criticism, labelled “completely irresponsible” as the nation’s reputation repeatedly cops it in global headlines.
Australia has been labelled “completely irresponsible” and called out for digging “dark holes of poison for itself” as global leaders meet for critical climate talks.
The G20 summit in Rome finished without many concrete commitments on emissions reduction. Now Prime Minister Scott Morrison faces the COP26 United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson welcomed more than 120 world leaders to historic climate talks in Scotland on Monday with the stark warning: “It’s one minute to midnight, and we need to act now.”
He will use the opportunity to warn leaders in a speech tha
The G20 members including China, India and Western nations collectively emit nearly 80 per cent of global carbon emissions, but campaigners’ hopes for more decisive action heading in to COP26 were dashed.
