“The northern Galilee Basin has the potential to be a major hydrocarbon producing region, as it contains a similar succession, in age and rock types, to the Cooper and Bowen basins,” says a recent Department of Mines and Energy report.

“Significant gas and oil shows within the sequence suggest that the basin has the potential to contain commercial quantities of hydrocarbons.”

This belief is shared by Comet Ridge and the aptly named Galilee Energy, which both hold acreage in the basin and are quietly confident about unlocking the Galilee’s conventional and unconventional petroleum possibilities.

According to Comet, thick Permian-aged coals, similar to those being developed for CSM in the Bowen Basin to the east, underlay much of the area, and oil and gas shows have been recorded in several oil and gas wildcats.

“The commercial potential of the Galilee Basin is twofold,” says Comet Ridge managing director Andy Lydyard.

“Firstly, there are thick Upper Permian coal seams with a huge coal seam gas potential. Secondly, ten feet of 43 API oil was recovered in a test of the Lower Permian Galilee Sandstone.”

To date, the region has a drilling density of one well per 4300 square kilometres. Most exploration took place during the 1960s, but a lack of success has failed to reignite interest.

But this could be about to change, if Comet and Galilee are to be believed.

Comet recently farmed-out two permit applications in the east of the basin to unlisted Australian junior, Clark Energy, in an attempt to get moving on a multi-year seismic and drilling program in the region.

In addition, Galilee has recently raised $1.5 million to fund the next stage of its own CSM and conventional petroleum exploration efforts.