PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Geoscience Australia’s updated Australia’s Energy Commodity Resources (AECR) assessment for 2022, has reaffirmed Australia’s position as a leading global energy producer and supplier going into the current world energy crisis, and highlights the impact the pandemic had on global production and demand for energy commodities.

The assessment included detailed analysis of Australia’s non-renewable energy resources comprising uranium, coal, oil and gas commodities in 2020 and 2021.

“Australia remains a secure and reliable supplier of energy to our trading partners, particularly in this time of global energy volatility, and we will continue to help them achieve their climate ambitions,” Minister for Resources and Northern Australia Madeleine King said.

“In 2020, Australia remained the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas and metallurgical coal. We also rose in the rankings to become the world’s second-largest producer of uranium.”

In terms of gas, Australia’s  2P reserves in 2020 are estimated as 72 082 PJ for conventional gas and 28 934 PJ for unconventional coal seam gas (CSG). At the end of 2020, yearly gas production rates were 6 178 PJ, the equivalent of 16 years of production for all gas reserves.

In 2020, in-situ economic demonstrated resources (EDR) of black coal totalled 87 645-million tonnes and brown coal amounted to 81 234-milion tonnes.

As at December 2020, Australia’s total recoverable identified resources of black coal were estimated at 163 330-million tonnes, of which recoverable EDR were 74 147-million tonnes, and Australia is ranked fourth, globally, for economically demonstrated black coal resources after the US, China and India.

At the end of December 2020, Australia had the world’s largest EDR of uranium, at 1.23-million tonnes, and in 2020 was the world’s second-largest producer of uranium.

In 2020, Australia had three producing uranium mines: Olympic Dam and Four Mile in South Australia, and Ranger in the Northern Territory.

Australian supply of uranium has declined moderately over the past ten years, mainly owing to the closure of two mines in 2014 and 2015. In the short to medium term, owing to the closure of the Ranger mine in January 2021, Australian yearly production of uranium will decrease by approximately 20%.

Meanwhile, King on Wednesday said that the AECR 2022 also highlighted emerging opportunities for Australia as the world moves towards net zero.

“Australia continues to have strong gas reserves, which will help smooth the transition to a low-emissions economy by acting as a firming fuel for renewables,” King said.

“Our unique geology is also being used to tap into emerging opportunities and help decarbonise our economy.

“We saw a 43% increase in total hydrogen projects in Australia in 2021, with the number of operational projects rising from 3 to 20. While many of these projects are small in scale, their potential is enormous.

“Australia also continues to invest in carbon capture and storage (CCS) initiatives to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere. The International Energy Agency has identified CCS as essential to the world reaching net-zero emissions.

“This is in addition to the central role Australia will play in critical minerals and rare earths development for energy storage and electrification.”