Northern Territory traditional owners in landmark agreement with Beetaloo Energy Australia
Traditional owners and a leading Territory gas company have reached a historic agreement that could create thousands of jobs.
Northern Territory
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A leading Beetaloo Basin gas explorer has reached a landmark agreement with traditional owners to allow gas extracted from their land to be sold to the NT Government for use by Territory households.
Beetaloo Energy Australia, formerly Empire Energy, met with traditional owners from the Mambaliya Rrumburriya Wuyaliya Aborignal Land Trust at Cape Crawford on Tuesday and Wednesday where the appraisal agreement was finalised.
In a statement to the ASX on Thursday morning Beetaloo Energy Australia said traditional owners consented to the sale of appraisal gas in accordance with the 1984 NT Petroleum Act.
Beetaloo Energy Australia managing director Alex Underwood said the agreement could extend for up to six years, as the company gears the project up to full production on the back of its NT Government gas sales agreement.
“On behalf of the Beetaloo Energy team, I extend our appreciation to traditional owners and the Northern Land Council for making the effort to arrange and attend this important meeting,” Mr Underwood said.
“We are grateful to traditional owners for their decision to continue driving the project forward.
“Beetaloo Energy is deeply committed to working with landowners and local communities to share the economic and social benefits that are already accruing and will continue to accrue from the ongoing exploration and appraisal of the project.
“The traditional owners have consented to what we call appraisal gas and we expect that period to run over about five or six years.
“Then we would look to sit down again to move into a full production agreement.”
The agreement represents a significant and hard-fought milestone for Beetaloo Energy Australia which, along with Tamboran Resources, is one of the two main explorers in the vast Territory gas field.
It also represented a significant shift for some traditional owners including Gudunji woman Joni Maree Wilson, who along with her father Johnny and other prominent community members had previously opposed the Beetaloo development.
I was really against fracking three or four years ago, I was one of the people that went to Canberra to go against fracking,” Ms Wilson said. “What changed my mind was that I came here and Empire gave me employment to come and see for myself what it’s all about and it’s pretty good.
“It’s not like mining at all. I live in two worlds, white man and Aboriginal world and I’m very passionate about my culture and country and the only way for me to protect my country is to engage Imperial gas here.
“This will benefit employment for my people nad opportunities in the future for construction and roads, better schooling, more housing opportunities. Right now we’re stuggling with a lot of stuff and hopefully this will contribute to better opportnities for generations.”
Along with a number of other traditional owners Joni Maree has secured work at Beetaloo Energy Australia’s Carpentaria wells site, about 220km east of her Borroloola home, and can see the long term benefits to the remote region.
In her role as a health and safety officer with Beetaloo Energy Australia, Joni Maree welcomed about 30 guests to the site on Thursday morning on a tour to mark the drilling of Carpentaria’s number five well.
At a depth of about 1600m, the well then extends laterally about 3000m south as the hydraulic fracturing process prepares the field ahead of gas flow testing and ultimately production.
Lead by experienced United States company Halliburton, the Carpentaria 5 drill is the largest ever shale gas horizontal drill at the Beetaloo and in Australian exploration history.
Prominent Territory and interstate investors visited the project site on Thursday as 20 massive 22,000 horsepower pumps delivered the projectiles, sand and water deep underground that opens the way for extraction.
Concurrently, the company is seeking final approvals for the gas processing plant it plans to relocate from Roma, Queensland.
Mr Underwood said first gas to the NT Government under the agreement inked two years ago with then Chief Minister Eva Lawler could flow later this year, or in early 2026.
“There’s not enough gas in the local market, so we strongly believe that the local people should be looked after first,” Mr Underwood said. “We were delighted the NT Government signed that 10-year gas sales agreement with us that allows investors to have confidence as well there’s going to be a revenue stream and allows to keep making these very significant investments.”
“We’re now finalising an NT Government approval and as soon as that’s done, we’ve got funding lined up so then we can start building the gas plant in just a couple of months, that’s the last step and we can start putting it in the pipe.”
Mr Underwood said 90 people were currently working on the site largely drilling a single well, and he questioned whether earlier estimates of up to 6000 new Territory jobs in the basin was an under estimation.
“This basin has extraordinary potential that stretches hundreds of kilometres, so I think those estimates may, in the fullness of time, be quite conservative.
“We have direct jobs but there’s a huge multiplier effect that comes from the oil and gas industry.
“There’s not only jobs here on site, but we’ve provided a lot of employment in Borroloola, Cape Crawford, Katherine and Darwin.
“We’re going to be very busy over the next five or six years building up from this very exciting point right now.”
Mining Minister Gerard Maley said the project had the government’s full backing.
“We know there’s a lot of gas in the Beetaloo and this is the first stage in getting it out of the ground and getting it to market,” he said.
“This is really important to us because gas keeps our lights on
“This is not just about who’s directly employed in the gas industry it’s the indirect jobs that flow as well to the mechanics and the hairdressers, so there’s going to be a flow-on from this to the economy right across the Northern Territory.”
*The NT News flew to the site courtesy of Beetaloo Energy Australia.
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