The Energy Portfolio Downunder: What’s new and enabling?

Abstract

Australia’s subsurface holds a huge energy resource endowment including coal, petroleum, uranium, and geothermal energy. Australia’s oceanic surrounds, sunshine and wind provide additional options for energy supplies. That is fortunate and these comparative advantages will enable Australia to sustain prosperity with safe, secure and competitively priced energy supplies in the face of increasing demand. Oil will peak – buwor transport or power.

A portfolio of new energy plays and technologies in traditional hunting grounds, and traditional energy plays in frontier settings have and will attract investment. Growth plays are not limited to: coal seam gas (CSG) to liquefied natural gas (LNG); Engineered Geothermal Systems (EGS); underground coal gasification (UCG); fractured shale plays; Precambrian sub-salt plays; deep water petroleum; gas to synfuels; coal to synfuels, LNG for transport; biofuels for transport; carbon capture and storage; solar thermal technologies; ocean energy technologies; and more.

This presentation will draw attention in particular to the future for geothermal energy and unconventional gas plays in South Australia, but in a national and international context. It will also touch on key principles for enabling and trustworthy legislation and regulation for energy resource development.

In conclusion, risks in meeting future energy challenges will be managed with a portfolio of engineered energy plays, including innovative energy storage and efficiency; new fuels; new transportation technologies; new modes of power generation, augmented energy infrastructure and enhanced market rules. Watch this space.