The future of one of the Kimberley's largest proposed onshore oil and gas projects remains unclear, after its backers pulled their plans from the state's environmental watchdog last week.
Theia Energy asked the Environmental Protection Authority to assess its proposal to drill and frack two exploratory wells 155km south east of Broome in February, with the proposal attracting 2000 public submissions.
But the company requested to terminate its assessment application last week.
Theia's proposal has sparked significant speculation since it first surface publicly, with a 2018 investor presentation suggesting up to 57 billion barrels of oil could be recovered via hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking", with the company also negotiating with the area's Karajarri traditional owners.
But environmental groups had vowed to oppose the project, saying the risks posed to groundwater and the environment, as well as increasing carbon emissions from oil and gas extraction, were unacceptable.
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Australia was midway through a once-in-a-lifetime $300 billion splurge that would make the country the world's biggest producer of super-chilled, shipped gas.
Floating gas plants were supposed to be the logical evolution, vacuuming up gas wherever they went and making fortunes for shareholders and taxpayers.
What's more, critics say the facility may never pay a cent in royalties, is unlikely to deliver a molecule of gas to the domestic market, and has sent most of the construction jobs offshore.
It is all a far cry from the rhetoric of last decade, when Shell's then-Australian chairwoman Ann Pickard said Prelude would be "full of Australians" and "generate a tonne of tax revenues".
How did the reality diverge so widely from the rhetoric, and what does the future hold for Shell's grand plans?
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Theia Energy's fracking proposal was published by the EPA for public comment this week (Jan 2022)
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An energy economist says the world will be watching as an Australian company's proposal to frack onshore oil in the Kimberley is considered by Western Australia's environmental watchdog.
The WA Environmental Protection Agency released Theia Energy's application for seven days of public comment this week (January 2022), which outlines plans to drill and frack two exploratory wells 155 kilometres south-east of Broome.
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."
Unlocking Australia's largest oil supply
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.
Economic and social challenges ahead
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.
