The 750-square-kilometre site has the potential to become Australia’s first major new oil province since the 1970s, according to a peak energy producers’ body.

But conservation groups have protested the announcement, flagging concerns about groundwater quality, fossil fuel emissions and protection of prime agricultural land.

Minister for Natural Resources and Mines Dale Last said the area had “serious potential to revitalise a domestic oil production industry”.

“This new exploration area is a critical step in boosting Queensland’s domestic energy supplies to put downward pressure on energy prices,” Mr Last said.

He said any gas production in the Taroom Trough would be directed to the Australian market rather than for export, as per the Australian Market Supply Condition.

The national oil and gas industry body, Australian Energy Producers, said the Taroom Trough would present a “significant step toward unlocking a new frontier for domestic oil and gas development”.

Australian Energy Producers director Keld Knudsen said expanding exploration sites was critical to sustaining fuel supply to key sectors like transport, mining and agriculture.

Energy analyst Rick Wilkinson, chief executive of Energy Quest and an adjunct professor at the University of Queensland, said there had been some “very encouraging oil results” from the existing players in the Taroom Trough.

“The players there already have some interest in the area and there have already been some successful gas wells drilled,” he said.

Mr Wilkinson said the Taroom Trough was emerging as one of the most promising onshore oil and gas exploration regions on Australia’s east coast, while stressing that it was still “early days”.

“If the rocks extend the way we hope, it could be very exciting for Queensland,” he said.

Explaining why Australia had not had an oil boom like the US or Saudi Arabia, Mr Wilkinson said geology was the key factor.

“One of the main reasons why Australia struggles to have as much oil as you might otherwise expect is just simply the rocks that we have and the geology that is unique to Australia,” he said.

The oil discovered so far in the Taroom Trough had been a light crude or condensate that was suited to domestic refining, he said.

Australian company Omega TN Pty Ltd, as well as Tri-Star Stonecraft Pty Ltd and Drillsearch Energy Pty Ltd, have been appointed as preferred tenderers.

Omega Oil and Gas chief executive Trevor Brown said exploration in the Taroom Trough was costly and risky, with a single well costing $15 million to $20 million, but the potential economic and energy-security benefits made the gamble worthwhile.

“This area [has] some serious potential for large volumes of oil and gas in the future,”

he said.

“It’s both a national security and an energy security issue.”

On environmental and community concerns, he said the company had good relationships with the local community and landholders and operated within a “very well-managed, very well-regulated industry sector”.

Conservation groups have protested the announcement, flagging concerns about groundwater quality, water consumption, and fossil fuel emissions.

Lock the Gate national coordinator Ellen Roberts said experimental gas wells could be placed up to 4km underground.

“Gas wells … are capped and abandoned after they’ve finished producing gas, but that well infrastructure stays there forever.”

Ms Roberts noted the LNP state government made a pre-election promise to protect prime agricultural land on the Darling Downs; a promise she said had been broken.

“Instead we just see endless announcements about new farmland, new areas of Queensland that they’re going to be opening up to gas extraction in the interest of overseas gas markets and multinational companies,” she said.

Queensland Conservation Council’s Clare Silcock said the announcements directly contradicted the state government’s emissions reduction target of 75 per cent below 2005 levels by 2035.

“They just don’t have a plan to meet it and they’re actively going against it,”

Ms Silcock said.

“We’re deeply concerned that, at the same time, they’re really rolling out the red carpet for coal and gas industries in Queensland [and] they’re putting roadblocks in the place of renewable energy.”

In January, the Crisafulli government approved three gas exploration sites in the Cooper-Eromanga basin in far south-west Queensland.

On the same day, state-owned generator CleanCo withdrew from the Moah Creek wind farm near Rockhampton and instead signed a 10-year agreement with a different wind farm in north-west Queensland.