Tasmania poised for oil, gas bonanza

US exploration company Empire Energy Corporation yesterday unveiled a $31 million program to drill up to eight test wells at key locations in an exploration lease covering 23 per cent of the state.

It also released an independent expert’s prediction that the lease could hold between 67million and 145million barrels of oil and between 344billion and 799billion cubic feet of natural gas.
The company said that on current record prices, this assessment by consultancy RPS Energy would put the value of the resource at between $7 billion and $15 billion.

“Really the potential could be significantly more, but you have to be conservative,” said Phil Simpson, executive director of Empire’s local subsidiary, Great South Land Minerals. “You can comfortably say that (exploration) tenement can hold up to $15billion – I don’t think that’s a wild assertion.”

Australian