Researcher biography

Gas and energy expert, Professor Andrew (Alf) Garnett is a former Shell and Schlumberger executive. He currently leads large multi-disciplinary research programs contributing to future energy transitions through natural gas and through carbon abatement at The University of Queensland. He was bought on board by UQ for his deep industry experience, having worked widely on oil and gas developments across the globe for the past 30 years, most notably, those with high greenhouse gas emission footprints.

Andrew heads up UQ's Centre for Natural Gas, a centre formed in 2012 to drive world-class research in Queensland. The Centre is conducting high quality, independent scientific research in the natural gas sector to help improve stewardship of the State's resources. The research spans the areas of petroleum engineering and geoscience, groundwater management and impacts, and community and social performance He was also charged by the university to lead research investigating the potential development of large-scale carbon capture and storage in Queensland, a technology which is flagged internationally as one of the key solutions to significantly reduce emissions. The broad-scale technical, environmental, social and economic scoping study will be used to inform public debate and policy makers. See Research Impact

Alf's work focusses on research which focusses on the energy trilemma (energy security, energy affordability, environmental sustainability). The research seeks to assure supply, enable lower carbon baseload power and deliver significant benefits for regional communities (and even stimulate the hydrogen economy). His experience is drawn on by a number of high-profile energy boards, reference panels and government committees in this space. Andrew was non-executive Director for the National Energy Resources Australia (NERA) until late 2020 and has been reviewer for the International Energy Agency's World Energy Outlook (natural gas). Andrew is currently a non-executive Director of the Australian Gas IndustryTrust.. He is active on a number of external advisory bodies e.g. ESG Working Group Queensland Department of Resources; Cwlth Government, Technical Committee for the National CCUS Technology Emissions Abatement Strategy; Surat Stakeholder Advisory Group & Community Leader's Council, Queensland GasFields Commission; NSW, Narrabri Greenhouse Gas Emissions Advisory Group; Standards Australia Standards development Committee: EE-002. Carbon dioxide capture, transportation and geological storage – meeting quarterly; Queensland Department of Resources, Bowen Basin Pipeline Feasibility Study.Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprises, Energy Advisory Group ... He is often asked to tale part in State and Commonwealth evaluation pannels.

The Centre is currently focussed on three main themes: [A] Energy Supply (especially complex predictive modelling for gas and groundwater interactions), [B] Sector Decarbonisation; and [C] Environmental, Social. Governance (ESG) in its broadest sense.