Just over a trillion tonnes of coal could be sitting about 200 metres underground in central Australia if a mining company's early drilling results prove accurate.
Central Petroleum Limited has drilled three wells to work out how much coal is in the Perdika Basin that starts about 50 kilometres south east of Alice Springs and stretches out over the South Australian border.
Managing director John Heugh says the amount of coal available is enough for coal bed methane gas extraction and coal gasification.
Coal bed methane is the gas naturally produced from coal whereas coal gasification involves burning the coal underground.
John Heugh explains what's in store for the Perdika Basin project.
"Underground coal gasification if it works in this area would be confined to simply drilling the coal underground with horizontal bores and basically burning it underground, pumping air in one end and extracting the produced gases from the other to surface." he says.
"Once they get to surface you process and treat the gas and recombine to produce pipeline sales gas, mostly methane or alternatively run it through a reactor and produce diesel jet fuel and those sorts of liquid products."
In this report: John Heugh, managing director, Central Petroleum Limited
