Arabic version: بريدجبورت تفوز بعطاءات استكشاف في تشانل كانتري

According to ABC News, Bridgeport Energy has been named preferred tenderer for an additional 270,000 hectares of oil and gas exploration land in Queensland’s Channel Country. The areas lie between Innamincka and Thargomindah along the South Australian-Queensland border, with any new fuel supply intended to remain in Australia.

Bridgeport already holds about 90,000 hectares of oil-producing acreage in the Cooper-Eromanga basin and processes oil at Queensland’s only inland oil refinery, at Eromanga. Chief executive Christian Lange said production from the new land could still be years away, with the company expecting it could take the best part of two years to obtain authority to prospect and prepare seismic work before aiming to drill a first well within a couple of years.

Lange said Bridgeport wanted to work “very, very closely” with graziers and traditional owners before exploration began. He said the company would consider potential effects on groundwater, fauna, flora, roads and other land disturbances, and would use seismic surveys to assess whether commercial flows of oil or gas were present.

The sites are outside the protected Channel Country flood plains, where fracking was banned two years ago, though parts are within 5 to 10 kilometres of the boundary. Western Rivers Alliance coordinator Riley Rocco said the group was neutral on mining beyond the flood plains but wanted industrial activity managed well outside significant river and flood plain areas.

The tender round also allocated 62,500 hectares in the Channel Country to ASX-listed Vintage Energy and 30,600 hectares in the Taroom Trough to a four-business consortium. Queensland Resources Minister Dale Last said increasing fuel supply was the “only solution to bring down the cost of energy”. Queensland has awarded 12 sites for oil or gas exploration since 2025.