PERTH, Australia, Sept. 2, 2026 \/PRNewswire\/ — A 12-year-old exploration drill hole in Western Australia’s\u00a0Gascoyne is still venting gas containing up to 97% methane and 0.24% helium (air-corrected), as Perth-based explorer Constellation Resources investigates whether it forms part of a potentially significant, previously overlooked 500km-long onshore gas system.<\/p>\n
Constellation Resources has secured a first-mover position across approximately 88,000km\u00b2 of the Edmund-Collier Basin, a vast geological system that has never been systematically explored for natural gas.<\/p>\n
The Edmund-Collier shares key characteristics and a similar geological setting with the Beetaloo Basin, which is emerging as one of Australia’s most significant new sources of long-term onshore gas. First gas at Beetaloo was fracked and put into the power grid this week, making the comparison highly topical.<\/p>\n
Evidence gathered at Edmund-Collier to date includes laterally extensive organic-rich source rocks, historical gas shows and ongoing gas venting from a drill hole completed more than a decade ago.<\/p>\n
Importantly, the basin is also strategically located in proximity to existing gas pipeline infrastructure and large-scale potential customers, including LNG facilities and major iron ore operations.<\/p>\n
Further evidence of the basin’s gas potential comes from a historical exploration hole drilled for copper and gold in 1977. At approximately 300 metres depth, the hole intersected significant volumes of combustible gas, resulting in a pressurised gas outburst and surface ignition during drilling, a rare and potentially important indication of an active subsurface gas system.<\/p>\n
CSIRO examination of historical core from 12 drill holes located across the basin has also confirmed prospectivity for methane, ethane, hydrogen and helium, adding further support to Constellation’s exploration model.<\/p>\n
Constellation is now integrating historical drilling data, geological interpretation, source-rock analysis and gas data to establish a play-type ranking across the basin and identify areas with the strongest potential for future exploration.<\/p>\n
Constellation Resources Managing Director Peter Woodman said:<\/p>\n
“The scale of this opportunity is compelling. With gas readings of up to 97% methane, multiple indicators of an active gas system and a first-mover position across an unexplored 500km-long basin, Constellation has the opportunity to test whether Western Australia could be sitting on its next major onshore gas province.”<\/p>\n
Could Western Australia be sitting on an overlooked 500km-long natural gas system? Constellation has secured a first-mover position before the significance of the Edmund-Collier Basin is fully understood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PERTH, Australia, Sept. 2, 2026 \/PRNewswire\/ — A 12-year-old exploration drill hole in Western Australia’s\u00a0Gascoyne is still venting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":877149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,63,446777,19145,70557,308,104381,161012,22115,19225,59910,446778,105,231],"class_list":["post-877148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-constellation-resources","tag-drilling","tag-emerging","tag-exploration","tag-helium","tag-investigates","tag-methane","tag-natural-gas","tag-secured","tag-strengthens","tag-technology","tag-test"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=877148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}