Australia: The New Saudi Arabia?

Shale gas may be sparking an energy revolution in the United States and potentially even China , but it has attracted relatively little attention in Australia. All that may have changed with a recent announcement by Brisbane-based energy explorer, Linc Energy.

Linc shares surged 24 percent after it told the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on January 23 that its shale oil assets in South Australia’s Arckaringa Basin had the potential to hold up to 233 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) – an amount not incomparable to Saudi Arabia’s estimated oil reserves of 263 billion BOE.

The announcement sparked excitable headlines too, including the Advertiser’s AUD “$20 trillion shale oil find surrounding Coober Pedy ‘can fuel Australia’”.

Linc’s chief executive Peter Bond, a self-made mining magnate and among Australia’s richest executives, showed little reluctance to fuel media speculation.

“If it comes in the way the reports are suggesting, it could well and truly bring Australia back to [oil] self-sufficiency,” Bond told the Adelaide daily.

He said the discovery could potentially rival the U.S. shale boom, even at the lower end of estimates amounting to 3.5 billion BOE. (more)

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