Geoscience Australia’s annual stocktake of Australia’s energy resources demonstrates Australia’s continued position as a significant and important global energy exporter and a leader in emerging low carbon technology.
The 2024 edition of Australia’s Energy Commodity Resources (AECR) assessment includes a detailed analysis of Australia’s non-renewable energy resources comprising natural gas, oil, coal and uranium in the 2022 calendar year.
It also highlights emerging opportunities for the geological storage of carbon dioxide and the production and storage of hydrogen, which will be critical to the net zero transition.
Geoscience Australia CEO Dr James Johnson said Australia is endowed with a wealth of energy resources.
“At the end of 2022, Australia was ranked the world’s largest exporter of metallurgical coal and the world’s second largest exporter of gas,” Dr Johnson said.
“Perhaps what’s most exciting is the expansion of projects enabling the energy transition.”
AECR 2024 shows that as the world and Australia strive to achieve net zero emission targets, clean energy projects continue to expand across Australia.
“Australia's hydrogen industry is going from strength to strength with a pipeline of projects valued over $200 billion in 2023,” Dr Johnson said. “As well as 76 major hydrogen projects nationally – a 70% increase since 2022.”
“Supporting this growth in 2022, the Australian Government granted five permits for offshore greenhouse gas storage and is currently assessing bids received for a further ten areas.”
“For the first time, AECR includes information on the status of geothermal energy in Australia as well, as we’ve recently seen an increase in permit applications.”
The Australian Government is investing $3.4 billion in precompetitive geoscience over 35 years under the Resourcing Australia’s Prosperity initiative.
Geoscience Australia will map Australia's natural resources and accelerate the discovery of those resources vital to the clean energy transition and a Future Made in Australia.
The AECR 2024 digital publication is available here: AECR 2024