A controversial outback gas field has been enthusiastically talked up at a major resources conference along with proposed long-distance pipelines to take the fuel to east coast markets.
The vast Beetaloo Basin field has been touted as an energy lifesaver for Australia if it is connected by pipeline from the Northern Territory to customers in the east.
First gas from the Beetaloo was sent to fuel homes and businesses in the Top End on Tuesday.
But the three gas companies fracking the field – Tamboran Resources, Beetaloo Energy Australia and oil and gas giant Santos – are eyeing more lucrative markets on the east coast and in Asia.
The federal government favours a future of renewable energy sources, with gas seen as helping in the transition from fossil fuels.
The Beetaloo Basin is a major onshore shale resource in the NT’s Sturt Plateau, about 500km southeast of Darwin.
Beetaloo fracking, construction of pipelines and using the gas to power AI data centres are vigorously opposed by environmental groups who cite the risk of aquifer contamination and massive carbon emissions.
Two proposed Beetaloo pipeline projects received boosts during the two-day Resources NT conference in Darwin.
The Queensland government on Wednesday declared the North to East Australia Pipeline stage a co-ordinated project, fast-tracking the environmental assessment process.
The proposal is for a 900km pipeline from the NT border to Queensland’s southwest gas network, forming part of a 1560km line from the Beetaloo.
The APA Group proposes the line’s construction and operation, linking it with the existing South West Queensland Pipeline, 90km east of Ballera.
Completion of the whole line will mean Beetaloo gas could be sent to the Queensland port of Gladstone for export or south to domestic markets on Australia’s east coast.
At the resources conference on Thursday, David Gillespie, managing director of pipeline layer Jemina, announced the company would apply for a permit to build a 400km pipeline to take Beetaloo gas to the east coast.
The line would run from the Beetaloo to Jemina’s Northern Gas Pipeline at Mount Isa in Queensland, where a gas line already runs south.
It would be “the fastest and most efficient pathway” to unlock the Beetaloo and get its gas to east coast markets, Mr Gillespie said.
Kevin Gallagher, the chief executive of oil and gas giant Santos, told the conference the company was “indifferent” to where its Beetaloo gas went.
“We’ve got an east coast domestic gas market which by all accounts needs gas.”
Santos saw the potential in the Beetaloo to supply all the needs of the east coast gas market to the end of the century, Mr Gallagher said.
“All we’ve got to do now is drill some wells, and prove the economics of those wells support our vision.”
Santos appreciated having a supportive regulatory jurisdiction in the NT government and that mattered when investing billions of dollars, Mr Gallagher said.
“At the federal level I think we’ve still got to see a little bit more.”
Santo was seeking supportive approval processes, not subsidies, Mr Gallagher said.
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