The company announced it had recovered core samples at its Bloodwood Creek trial site in the Surat Basin, southeast Queensland, ticking off another checkpoint required by the Queensland government for the approval.

Further drilling is scheduled to recover baseline samples from the boundary of the company’s licensed area along with samples from above and within the UCG cavity.

The Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines released an independent scientific panel report mid last year that outlined a path for commercialisation of the UCG industry in the state.

“The drilling and sampling program is another checkpoint required to meet the Queensland government’s very strict requirements for the commercial application approval of Carbon Energy’s keyseam UCG technology,” Carbon Energy CEO Morne Engelbrecht said.

“Once the analysis of all the core, baseline and cavity samples is complete and the criteria for rehabilitation are agreed with the Queensland government, the decommissioning plan can be finalised.

“As outlined in the ISP report, no commercial UCG facility can be commenced until this is done.”

The Bloodwood Creek site previously helped Carbon Energy achieve proof of concept for its keyseam UCG technology.

Results of the analysis of collected samples will be interpreted by independent environmental and site remediation experts.