Oil company wins tenders in Channel Country with supply to stay in Australia

An Australian oil company, Bridgeport Energy, has secured tenders to explore oil and gas reserves in the Channel Country, with the supplies remaining within the domestic market. The company has been granted 270,000 hectares of new land to develop, located between Innamincka and Thargomindah along the South Australian-Queensland border. Bridgeport Energy already holds approximately 90,000 hectares of oil-producing acreage in the Cooper-Eromanga basin and processes oil at Queensland's sole inland oil refinery in Eromanga.

The company's chief executive, Christian Lange, emphasized that any fossil fuels extracted from the new land would remain within Australia, although the process could take years before oil or gas flows. The Queensland government has been increasing land allocations to mining companies since 2025. Bridgeport Energy CEO Lange expressed a willingness to collaborate closely with landholders, including graziers and traditional owners, to minimize any negative impact on the land during exploration and extraction.

Despite the land not falling within protected Channel Country flood plains, parts of the newly allocated sites are within 5 to 10 kilometers of the boundary. The Western Rivers Alliance, comprising graziers, traditional owners, and conservationists, has adopted a neutral stance on mining activities outside the flood plains, advocating for the activity to remain well outside these areas to prevent adverse impacts on river and flood plain regions.

A significant oil spill in the Channel Country in 2013, involving 250,000 liters of crude oil leaked from a Santos-owned well, caused substantial damage before the leak was contained.