The Australian Government’s $225 million Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program is committed to supporting a strong economy, resilient society and sustainable environment for the benefit of Australians (https://www.ga.gov.au/eftf). At its heart, the program is about stimulating industry now to ensure a sustainable, long-term future for Australia through an improved understanding of the nation’s minerals, energy and groundwater resource potential. By gathering and analysing geological and geophysical data and making the results publicly available, the program supports regional development and informed decision making across Australia, resulting in jobs and growth. The Energy component of this program is designed to produce pre-competitive information to assist with the evaluation of the hydrocarbon resource potential of onshore basins and attract exploration investment to Australia. As part of the EFTF Natural Hydrogen module, molecular and isotopic analyses were undertaken by Geoscience Australia on natural gas samples from the wells Canunda 2 and Ralgnal 1 from the southwestern margin of the Patchawarra Trough in the Cooper Basin, with the raw data from these analyses being released in this report. Some data from these wells were included in the nationwide studies of helium and hydrogen, as published by Boreham et al. (2018; 2021), and build on previous studies that document the composition of Australian natural gases (Boreham et al., 2001). These data are available through the Geoscience Australia portal at https://portal.ga.gov.au/

<div>Exploring for the Future (EFTF) is a program dedicated to exploring Australia’s resource potential and boosting investment. This program is designed to produce pre-competitive information to assist with the evaluation of the hydrocarbon resource potential of onshore basins and attract exploration investment to Australia. This record presents geochemical analyses of natural gases sampled from Nangwarry 1, located in the onshore Otway Basin, undertaken in partnership with the Department for Energy and Mining – Energy Resources, Government of South Australia, as part of the EFTF program Natural Hydrogen module. The Nangwarry Joint Venture drilled Nangwarry 1 to investigate the potential for the development of food grade, carbon dioxide production from this well. The results of the molecular and stable carbon and hydrogen isotopic analyses undertaken by Geoscience Australia are released in this report. The molecular data show that the gas composition in this well has an average of 96 mol% CO2 with an isotopic signature indicative of a magmatic origin, being comparable with previously produced gases from onshore Otway Basin wells (e.g. Boggy Creek 1, Caroline 1) for use by the food industry. The carbon and hydrogen isotopic composition of the C1–C5 hydrocarbon gases from Nangwarry 1 are suggestive of a source from within the Crayfish Supersequence.</div>