The Queensland Government has given energy company Santos extended rights to explore environmentally significant areas for potential commercial gas extraction.

Queensland’s Channel Country is a vast outback area of outback Queensland, covered in a complex web of small rivers and tributaries.

The rivers and floodplains sit over the Great Artesian Basin and feed into Lake Eyre, supporting major organic farming operations.

The Queensland Government has pledged to protect the Channel Country's floodplains, describing the area last year as one of “outstanding social, cultural and environmental attributes, as well as economic opportunities”.

“The Government has committed to work with traditional owners, stakeholders and communities to ensure the state's Channel Country is protected,” Ms Enoch said.

But government documents obtained by the ABC under right to information laws show that the state’s Department of Natural Resources, Mining and Energy gave Santos a licence to prospect for gas in the Channel Country until 2030.

The areas Santos that is allowed to search for commercial gas opportunities in include so-called “strategic environmental areas’, according to anti-fracking group Lock the Gate.

Lock the Gate Queensland programs coordinator Ellie Smith says that if the State Government really wants to protect the area, it is odd to allow prospecting for commercial gas.

“Despite the commitment the Queensland Government made to protect the Channel Country, they were allowing new prospecting to go on in the floodplains in the region,” Ms Smith told reporters.

“They're extremely significant and they are very fragile, so things like well-heads, the pipelines, the access roads that would be needed for full-scale shale gas fracking operation, would totally disrupt the river system.”

The Queensland Government is yet to comment on the revelation.