The ‘Australia’s Future Energy Resources’ (AFER) project: assessing the energy commodity resources potential in underexplored regions of central Australia

The ‘Australia’s Future Energy Resources’ (AFER) project is a four-year multidisciplinary investigation of the potential energy commodity resources in selected onshore sedimentary basins. The resource assessment component of the project incorporates a series of stacked sedimentary basins in the greater Pedirka-western Eromanga region in eastern central Australia. Using newly reprocessed seismic data and applying spatially enabled, exploration play-based mapping tools, a suite of energy commodity resources have been assessed for their relative prospectivity. One important aspects of this study has been the expansion of the hydrocarbon resource assessment work flow to include the evaluation of geological storage of carbon dioxide (GSC) opportunities. This form of resource assessment is likely to be applied as a template for future exploration and resource development, since the storage of greenhouse gases has become paramount in achieving the net-zero emissions target. It is anticipated that the AFER project will be able to highlight future exploration opportunities that match the requirement to place the Australian economy firmly on the path of decarbonisation.