Australia's abundant methane gas reserves found in coal seams could help power the world, according to a gas industry consultant.

Addressing a major offshore oil and gas industry conference in Darwin this week, Tony Regan of Tri-Zen International says there are also rich reserves of methane gas within coal seams in the Gladstone and Bowen Basin region of Queensland.

"These are large world scale projects, expect to see some consolidation," he said.

"But at the moment, we have got five projects, potentially 28 million tonnes within five years. That's more than existing Australian northern production."

Mr Regan says that globally there are more reserves of coal methane than conventional natural gas reserves, and Australian reserves represent about 40 per cent of the world's proposed new projects.

"CBM [coal-bed methane] in Australia is very, very significant," he said.

"Australian energy development is hugely significant. Those projects there represent about 50 per cent of the total global proposed new capacity."