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AusGeo News July 2013 Issue No. 110
Welcome to AusGeo News 110
Geoscience Australia can now claim to have two state-of-the art robots which will improve the accuracy of satellite positioning in Australia.
This issue of AusGeo News provides details of the new antenna calibration facility, consisting of two outdoor robots, that is one of only three of its kind in the world and the only one in the Southern Hemisphere. The facility will enhance Geoscience Australia’s role in enabling Australia’s national position capability to operate and analyse the data from a national network of permanent Global Navigational Satellite Systems stations.
What’s happened to geothermal? In the period 2005-2010 geothermal energy showed rapid growth in Australia with many tenements being taken up, significant exploration activities and a number of very deep wells drilled. Since that time, despite world-leading technical success, investment in geothermal development has been inadequate to sustain the pace of development forecast. This article examines why this decline has occurred and looks at the place of geothermal energy in Australia’s clean energy future, including the development and deployment needs of the geothermal industry and research sector, and how this might be coordinated.
The Minister for Resources and Energy Gary Gray released new offshore petroleum exploration areas at the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) conference in Brisbane. Details of the 2013 Offshore Petroleum Exploration Acreage Release, comprising 31 areas located across six basins in Commonwealth waters in the offshore areas of Northern Territory, Western Australia, Victoria and the Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands, are included in this issue.
Congratulations to Marita Bradshaw, Geoscience Australia’s Senior Science Advisor, for winning the award for Best Oral Presentation at the APPEA 2013 conference. Marita won this prestigious award for her presentation entitled Unconventional hydrocarbons-Australia’s old rocks prove their worth.
This issue provides an article Marita has written on the role government geoscience has played, and continues to play, in revealing the resource endowment of Australia. The article discusses how new Government funding will enable Geoscience Australia to undertake a strategic analysis of the petroleum potential of both onshore and offshore Australia, leading to new exploration opportunities and discoveries.
The Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) is diversifying its approach to economic development and poverty reduction in developing countries through the Mining for Development Initiative. Details of the role Geoscience Australia is playing in conducting a scoping program for the Initiative is summarised in this issue.
Geoscience Australia has a new set of Science Principles, developed to guide the agency’s geoscientific research that helps inform decision making by governments, industry and the wider community on a range of economic, social and environmental issues.
Dr Chris Pigram
CEO Geoscience Australia