The announcement comes after Linc Energy pulled the pin on its 14-year-old Chinchilla UCG pilot plant this week, with Carbon believing it is positioned as the leader of Australia’s UCG industry.

“Carbon Energy is poised to potentially play a key role in meeting the emerging shortfall in gas supply for eastern Australia,” Carbon chief executive officer Morne Engelbrecht said.

“Carbon Energy’s unique keyseam UCG technology delivers up to an estimated 20 times more energy from an area than other gas extraction techniques.”

The resource upgrade came from one of the five seam areas in Carbon’s MDL374 licence covering 30sq.km in Queensland’s Surat Basin, with Carbon believing its 1362PJ amounts to just 5% of estimated 2P UCG reserves in the region.

In July, the government released the findings of an independent scientific panel into UCG, which included a key finding that no commercial UCG plant should start up “until decommissioning can be demonstrated”

It was part of the regulatory uncertainty that prompted Linc to take its UCG division offshore – but Carbon aims to soldier on.

“We are pleased with the progress of the rehabilitation plans and are confident that a UCG regulatory regime can be established in Queensland, which will allow Carbon Energy to commence the commercialisation of this existing UCG gas reserve,” Engelbrecht said.