OMA – Omega Oil & Gas Limited
Qld’s Taroom Trough emerges as Australia’s new oil frontier
Angela Macdonald-Smith and Brittney Levinson
The Queensland government says the Taroom Trough region in the state’s south, which has attracted major investment from global giant Shell, could become Australia’s first significant new oil province in 50 years after it awarded a permit to a venture that includes Beach Energy.
The venture, led by Omega Oil and Gas, will drill wells in the 750-square-kilometre permit this year, contributing to what is expected to be a transformational year in uncovering the region’s oil and gas potential, said Omega chief executive Trevor Brown.
Brown, a former senior executive in Santos’ Queensland coal seam gas business, said the region offered an “incredible opportunity to really change the shape of the Australian industry”.
MST Marquee analyst Saul Kavonic described the region as “the most watched exploration play of 2026 in Australia” and said Beach’s move into the area continued the trend of experienced explorers being drawn to the Taroom. “If Queensland accelerates more acreage releases in the Taroom under the LNP’s pro-exploration strategy, then Queensland could see a new oil and gas province emerge, attracting billions in new investment this decade,” he said.
Shares in Omega rose 7 per cent to 46¢ on Tuesday amid growing optimism about the potential of the trough, where Queensland coal seam gas pioneer Tri-Star and junior explorer Elixir also hold interests.
Brett Woods, the chief executive at Beach, whose biggest shareholder is Kerry Stokes’ SGH Ltd and which is entering the Taroom for the first time, said the area had “significant potential to become a major hydrocarbon development region supporting domestic gas and Australian manufacturing and jobs”. .
The Taroom Trough, part of the Bowen Basin, contains a basin about three kilometres below the surface that hosts unconventional oil and gas, which will likely require horizontal drilling and fracking for it to flow to the surface.
Many of the investors were among those that developed Queensland’s $80 billion coal seam gas industry, which supplies vast quantities of gas to export markets in Asia and is a major producer for the domestic east coast market.
The Taroom Trough lies close to gas pipelines in southern Queensland.
But the region also holds oil, which analysts say could be produced sooner than gas and provide higher returns. Australia is expected to continue to need oil and gas for decades, despite the imperative to exit fossil fuels and cut carbon emissions.
Queensland’s minister for natural resources and mines, Dale Last, said the Taroom Trough had “serious potential” to revitalise Queensland’s oil production industry.
“We’re sending a clear message that Queensland is open for business, and this new exploration area is a critical step in boosting Queensland’s domestic energy supplies to put downward pressure on energy prices,” he said….
Brown said he expected between five and 10 exploration wells to be drilled across the Taroom Trough this year in three separate ventures, including Shell’s.
An early gas strike by Shell in 2024 provided the drilling success that fuelled interest in the region, which lies close to existing pipelines, making any gas produced much more accessible than that from the Beetaloo Basin in the Northern Territory.
Brown said the drilling made for a “huge year” for the region, as the industry gained information about the quality of the resource and where the “sweet spots” for potential production lay.
Keld Knudsen, the Queensland director for oil and gas industry lobby group Australian Energy Producers, said the Taroom Trough had the potential to become Australia’s first major new oil province in a generation.
He said the region could deliver long-term economic benefits for regional Queensland, through jobs and investment.
