Central Petroleum plans to tap world’s biggest coal field

An Australian company says a coal field discovered in the Simpson Desert could be the biggest in the world.

Central Petroleum Limited says it recently discovered the field in the south-east of the Northern Territory, about 300 kilometres from Alice Springs.

It says the coal seam stretches across 400 kilometres.

The company has signed an agreement with Allied Resource Partners (ARP) to work towards setting up a coal production plant in the Great Artesian Basin area.

ARP says the plan is to make liquid fuel without mining, by heating the coal underground, turning it into a gas, and then turning that gas into a liquid.

ARP spokesman David Shearwood says operations could last for 100 years because the field is so big.

“It is an enormous quantity of coal,” he said.

“In our analysis, we can’t find a bigger coal field on the planet.”

He says the project would involve building a pipeline to Darwin and possibly one to South Australia.

The joint venture partners say they are seeking $300 million from investors to pay for a feasibility study that would include extensive exploration.

ARP says the project could be bigger than the Inpex gas plant planned for Darwin – which today received environmental approval from the Federal Government.

A peak environment group in Central Australia has expressed concern about the proposed project.

Jimmy Cocking from the Arid Land Environment Centre says he is not buying assurances that the process will be environmentally friendly.

“They are very keen to distance themselves from the coal seam gas industry in saying it is very different,” he said.

“There are still inherent risks associated with it.

“This project is about making coal not coal, but pumping chemicals into the ground and pumping them up, so we have got big concerns about it.”

Mr Cocking also says he is not convinced the companies can meet their promise to capture carbon and store it underground.

He says the science of carbon capture has not been proven on a large-scale project like this one.

“What happens if we pump all that CO2 down into the aquifer?” he asked.

ABC