Tamboran Resources will begin drilling in the Beetaloo Basin in July after a large rig arrived from the United States, accelerating plans to capitalise on the Northern Territory’s approval of fracking, in what its chief executive described as “Australia’s greatest carbon emitting reduction opportunity”.

The NT government this week allowed fracking in the Beetaloo, in a decision the country’s oil and gas industry said would aid Australia’s $2 trillion economy and improve energy security but has ignited a wave of opposition from environmentalists and some Indigenous groups.