Entrepreneurs who have made billions on US shale and Queensland coal seam gas are betting that the remote and little known Beetaloo Basin in the Northern Territory will be Australia's answer to the US unconventional gas phenomenon.

American Energy Partners (AEP), headed by US shale pioneer Aubrey McClendon, and multibillion-dollar Texas-based private equity investor Energy & Minerals Group (EMG), are among those that have been lured to the Beetaloo within recent months by huge estimates for resources as well as pipelines and LNG plants that can deliver gas to buyers.