Australians could be sitting on enough coal seam gas to meet the nation's energy needs for the next 120 years, create more than 20,000 jobs and attracting $40 billion of investment.
But accessing the resource might cause earthquakes, contaminate ground water and see industrial wells sprouting up in people's backyards.
Speaking at an Australian Science Media Centre conference on Friday, Gas Industry Social and Environmental Research Alliance director Peter Stone said the coal seam gas industry was riven with uncertainty.
According to Dr Stone, Australia's proven and probable reserves of CSG would be capable of boiling 150 Sydney Harbours.
But if you add to that the ''possible'' reserves lurking under the surface - you are looking at enough gas to meet Australia's current energy needs for about 120 years, he said.
As the world moves to a green economy, we could be looking at a hefty pay packet.
Global demands for CSG are expected to consume most of the resource, with the industry predicted to create more than $40 billion in investment, 6000 permanent jobs and 18,000 temporary jobs.
CSG is also a lot cheaper than renewables. ''Coal seam gas is currently about 25 per cent cheaper than wind power and about 60 per cent cheaper than solar power,'' Dr Stone said.
And it's likely to remain that way for about two decades.
But the words ''likely'' and ''possible'' sprinkle conversations about CSG and there are few, if any, certainties, Dr Stone says.
''The scale of the industry and of its benefits and costs isn't preordained ... the industry may be smaller than anticipated,'' Dr Stone said.
No one is certain when, or even if, we will extract the 60 million tonnes of gas per year that industry predicts.
Added to these perplexities are the very real misgivings people have about how CSG is going to transform Australia's landscape, he said.
Unlike the coal industry, which has a small number of large mining sites across Australia, the CSG boom could pepper the plains of the eastern coast with small industrial mines. ''The industry is actually likely to have a very large number of small assets distributed across the landscape.''
Then there are the environmental concerns of drawing out large quantities of groundwater from a system already under pressure from historic over-allocations.
Judy Bailey, coal geologist at the University of Newcastle, said it was even possible that fracking could cause seismic activity.
The process sees water, sand and chemicals injected into the ground at high pressures to create fractures in the rock.
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