The company said these additional plans would not detract from its original focus, which was to explore the conventional and coal seam methane potential of its Pedirka Basin acreage with a drilling program to start in March.

It is setting up two wholly-owned subsidiaries – Central Green Pty Ltd, which will investigate carbon sink plantings and forestry, as well as Central Geothermal, which will look into whether its acreage has geothermal potential.

Central’s managing director John Heugh said these ambitions were unlikely to be realised until the company had set up production and cash flow.

“There will be no significant move into these areas until we have established production and cash flow but with an eye to the future, these potential activities must be investigated,” he said.

Heugh also pointed to the recent move by the petroleum industry into the geothermal exploration sector, which both use similar drilling techniques.

“Whilst the various debates over carbon trading and international protocols on greenhouse gas emissions rage, one thing is very clear and that is that a lot of petroleum producers are moving into green project areas,” he said.

“Woodside is a recent prime example of this strategy with their plan to invest $25 million in a joint venture with CO2.”

The company has identified large areas of central Australia - where it already has over 250,000 square kilometres of exploration acreage – for carbon sink plantings and/or conventional plantings for timber production.

Central is working with various government departments and Aboriginal groups to undertake early proving trials, with a longer-term view of establishing commercial production while providing employment for local traditional landowners.

“We have a social contract as a responsible corporate citizen to not only investigate green project potential but also to attempt to provide meaningful employment for the local traditional owners,” Heugh said.

In addition, Central plans to capitalise on moves by the Northern Territory government to establish geothermal exploration and exploitation regulations, and so is currently evaluating various parts of the NT and South Australia.

“Although the commercial exploitation of geothermal resources in central Australia would require probably large scale mining development as a potential customer base, the huge geothermal resource opportunities in central Australia would undoubtedly attract large capital investments in this sector, much like the investments we have seen in the petroleum sector,” Heugh said.

“We remain firmly committed to our core E&P business however while keeping an eye out for complementary investments in a geographical focus area that we know well.”