Gas exploration returns to the Darling Basin
The NSW Gas Statement released this week states the government does not intend to release further exploration areas beyond the Bancannia and Pondie Range Troughs in far-west New South Wales, the Narrabri project and existing north-west licences. Any gas produced in NSW is to be supplied to the domestic market. If that holds, these troughs may be the only new acreage on offer for the foreseeable future.
Bancannia and Pondie Range Troughs Exploration Release
New South Wales has reopened acreage in the Bancannia and Pondie Range Troughs, Darling Basin, for competitive selection, approximately 22,329 square kilometres in far-west New South Wales. It is the first new petroleum release in the state since 2014. Applications ran from the 1st of May to the 31st of July this year. The Moomba to Sydney gas pipeline crosses the surrounding region, which bears on the economics of any tight gas development.
Historically, twenty-three exploration licences were held across these troughs between the 1950s and 2013, with no discoveries recorded. The Geological Survey of New South Wales resource assessment classifies the area as predominantly prospective for tight gas, with some potential for conventional gas, and no coal seam gas potential. Thermogenic gas shows and oil stains have been logged in wells and shallow bores, providing evidence of an active petroleum system, though not yet economic.
A play worth testing?
There may be a play worth testing in the stratigraphy: a deep, marine-influenced interval old enough to have reached thermal maturity, overlain by thick, basin-wide clastic reservoir intervals. Source richness in that interval remains unproven to date with limited historical drilling.
The Adavale and Taroom read-across
The read-across is worth noting. The Adavale Basin in Queensland, broadly correlative in age, yielded its main discovery, the Gilmore gas field, in the 1960s, although it was not declared economic until 1987. More immediately, the Taroom Trough in the Bowen Basin is live right now, with Shell QGC, Beach Energy, Denison Gas and others acquiring acreage through 2026 and appraisal programs flowing gas and condensate to surface from a comparable deep tight gas setting, though the charge there comes from Permian coals and marine shales rather than a Devonian marine interval.
Whether the Darling Basin follows that trajectory is an open question. What's your read?
Sources
- NSW Government, NSW Gas Statement, October 2026
- NSW Resources, Petroleum exploration expression of interest 2026
- Geological Survey of NSW, Bancannia Trough Resource Assessment Report and Pondie Range Trough Resource Assessment Report
- Queensland Government, Taroom Trough tight gas awards statement
