Overview
- Researchers measured a single abandoned coal exploration borehole in the Surat Basin releasing about 235–253 tonnes of methane per year, roughly equal to emissions from 10,000 cars.
- The University of Queensland team used a portable Quantum Gas LiDAR for week-long, long-range monitoring and published the findings in Science of the Total Environment.
- Queensland has an estimated 130,000 coal exploration boreholes, and scientists say even a small fraction leaking at this rate would represent a non-trivial source of unreported methane.
- The Queensland Conservation Council and UQ researchers are urging a statewide audit and targeted remediation, noting that sealing a high-emitting bore is technically straightforward and typically costs around A$200,000.
- State officials say companies are required to plug bores, but many legacy sites are unmapped and are assessed case by case; a second bore with similar emissions observed by researchers has since been sealed.