MINING companies are exploring Australia's resource states for controversial shale gas as analysts tip the nascent industry will create the next energy boom.
Resources companies have poured about $500 million this year into developing South Australia's Cooper Basin and Western Australia's Perth Basin for shale gas, while early prospecting is occurring in central Queensland's Galilee Basin.
Amid controversy in the US and Britain over the hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" required to extract the shale gas from at least 2km below the surface, Morgan Stanley has said the industry has enormous potential.
Analyst Stuart Baker said shale gas could be "the next success story for Australia oil and gas". "The size of the prize is potentially very large, but unlocking the resource is likely to be an evolutionary process and, as with any exploration, there are likely to be setbacks," he said in a June research paper.
The Australian
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