Queensland provides the opportunity to explore for petroleum in sedimentary basins ranging in age from Precambrian to Tertiary with a variety of geological settings and histories.

Systematic exploration only commenced in 1960, and so the state remains largely under-explored, with a low well density in many of the highly prospective areas. Exploration has resulted in the discovery of commercial petroleum accumulations in the Adavale Basin, the Bowen and Surat basins, and the Cooper and Eromanga basins. More than 4000 km of transmission pipelines connect producing gas fields to markets within Queensland, particularly south-east Queensland, Gladstone and Mount Isa.

Since the mid-1990s, CSG has grown to become a significant source of gas, supplying over 75 per cent of the Queensland market and over 98 per cent of remaining proved and probable gas reserves. The increase in CSG production is shown in Figure 4. The State Government´s Queensland Gas Scheme, requiring 13 per cent of electricity to be sourced from gas-fired plants by 2005, underpinned the increase in exploration for natural gas.

Gas-fired power generation, with around half the carbon dioxide emissions of coal-fired generation, has increased significantly in Queensland. The 630 MW Darling Downs Power Station near Dalby was officially opened on 5 November 2010.

• Queensland's petroleum - Exploration and development potential - May 2012 (complete) (PDF, 4 MB)

Queensland's petroleum - Exploration and development potential - May 2012 has also been split into sections to enable faster downloads.

• Queensland's petroleum - Exploration and development potential - May 2012 Section 1 (PDF, 1 MB)
  Cover
  Contents
  Queensland petroleum highlights 2010-11
  
• Queensland's petroleum - Exploration and development potential - May 2012 Section 2 (PDF, 781 kB)
  Introduction
  Petroleum exploration 2010-11
  Production and reserves 2010-11
  Coal seam gas
  
• Queensland's petroleum - Exploration and development potential - May 2012 Section 3 (PDF, 732 kB)
  Coal seam gas (cont....)
  Unconventional petroleum
  
• Queensland's petroleum - Exploration and development potential - May 2012 Section 4 (PDF, 897 kB)
  Unconventional petroleum (cont....)
  Conventional petroleum
  
• Queensland's petroleum - Exploration and development potential - May 2012 Section 5 (PDF, 579 kB)
  Conventional petroleum (cont....)
  Petroleum and gas safety
  An expanding gas market
  Gas markets
  Legislative regime
  Geological Survey of Queensland
  Safety and Health - Petroleum and Gas Inspectorate
  Queensland Government contacts
  References
  Units and symbols