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With hard hats and hi-vis vests, Queensland politicians flooded their social media this week with footage from a drill site in western Queensland, as the state premier, David Crisafulli, claimed a “sea of oil” lay beneath his feet.

The Taroom trough in Queensland is being touted by some as a “generational opportunity” for Australia to drastically cut its reliance on imported oil.

Coming in the midst of a fuel supply crisis caused by the war in Iran, the news got plenty of media play. So what’s actually going on?

What is the Taroom trough?

The Taroom trough is a geological feature near Roma, roughly 350km west of Brisbane, covering an area of about 750 sq km – roughly the size of Singapore.

Companies have been exploring the area for oil and gas, but there are no actual assessments of how much oil there may be across the basin, or how accessible it is.

Is there a ‘sea of oil’ in the Taroom trough?

Crisafulli said there was a “sea of oil” in the Taroom trough and that it was the first oilfield to be developed in Australia in 50 years.

The state government’s resources department is less bullish, saying early exploration has “identified gas-rich underground systems with some associated liquids” but that “volume and extent are not yet fully understood”.

Tony Wood, a senior climate and energy fellow at the Grattan Institute and a former gas industry executive, said he would be “far more circumspect” on the area. The trough’s potential had been speculated about since the 1960s, he said.

“We’ve heard before people getting excited [about fossil fuel discoveries elsewhere] and we then find there’s not as much there, or that it’s too hard.”

In February the Queensland government appointed three preferred tenderers to explore for oil and gas in the region.

“It’s very early days,” said Wood. “They might find there’s a lot there, or not much, or there’s a lot but it’s too hard to get out.”

Any oil in the trough is thought to be between three and four kilometres down, and would probably require fracking – a technology that uses water, chemicals and high pressure to create fractures in rock to release hydrocarbons.

Omega Oil and Gas, one company exploring in the trough, reported last year that a test well had demonstrated “a material oil play” in its project area.

Another company exploring the trough, Elixir, told the Australian Financial Review that in the years to come the region could produce “hundreds of thousands of barrels” daily.

Geoscience Australia – the federal government agency that carries out assessments of potential fossil fuel resources – has not assessed the trough.

Wood said while he welcomed companies “having a go”, he cautioned it was often in their interests to talk up their prospects as they looked for investors.

Shell’s ‘early-stage exploration’

Both Crisafulli and the state’s resources minister, Dale Last, visited the Shell QGC drilling site with TV crews in attendance.

Pointing over his shoulder at a drill rig, Crisafulli said: “This is the first oilfield to be developed in this country in over half a century. We are standing above a sea of oil. A golden opportunity to deliver liquid gold for this state.”

The company told Guardian Australia it had drilled “a small number of appraisal wells as part of early-stage exploration” at the site, with work continuing.

“The exploratory work in the Taroom trough is primarily to assess its potential for backfill to LNG projects, as well as supply to the domestic market,” a spokesperson said.

What is Shell producing at the Taroom trough site?

Shell said it was producing about 200 barrels of “liquid condensate” a day from the site.

Dale Last shared on his Instagram a video where, holding a bottle of liquid next to a tanker, he said “in a matter of days it’s coming out of service stations in Queensland”.

Shell said the condensate was being sent to a refinery to produce “a low-particulate diesel used in underground mining and chemical solvents”.

Can Canberra ‘fast-track’ environmental approvals for projects in the trough?

In statements and a media release, the Crisafulli government said it was “calling for the federal government to recognise the Taroom trough as a project of national interest” and said environmental approvals should be put into a new fast-track pathway.

The state government has created a development plan for the trough to speed up approvals for developers to build roads and infrastructure.

There are two important elements to understand.

Firstly, in reforms to national environment laws agreed last year, the federal government created a fast track for assessing projects.

But this process excludes fossil fuel projects. When asked by reporters this week if the government would be willing to change that for companies working in the Taroom trough, the energy minister, Chris Bowen, said the new arrangements did not need to be changed.

Secondly, despite the call for the “Taroom trough project” to be fast-tracked – a point repeated by some TV reports – there is today no project to assess.

The environment minister, Murray Watt, said there were other ways to simplify approvals for oil and gas.

He said: “We would be happy to consider any concrete proposal the Queensland government puts forward – we have yet to receive anything from them.”

What about climate change?

There has been little mention of the greenhouse gas emissions that come from extracting and burning fossil fuels.

Wood said: “We’re supposed to be heading for a world with zero emissions. Finding more oil isn’t really consistent with that. I would rather see us moving to more electric vehicles and trucks.”