Tamboran’s big Beetaloo rig key to billions in NT gas royalties

Australia’s tallest and fastest onshore gas rig has landed in the Northern Territory as boss of resources company declares ‘go time’ for the Beetaloo fracking project.

It’s “go time in the Beetaloo” one of the key players in the project declared on Friday.

Joel Riddle, chief executive of Tamboran Resources, made the comments at East Arm Port to mark the arrival of Australia’s largest and fastest onshore gas drilling rig at Darwin’s East Arm port.

The Helmerich & Payne’s Flex 3 Rig will be transported by truck over coming weeks to the Beetaloo Sub-basin where it will be assembled and put to work drilling Tamboran Resources’ EP98 well.

It took 80 trips to move the rig onshore by barge and the resources company has an option for an additional four rigs if required at the Beetaloo.

Tamboran Resources’ managing director and CEO Joel Riddle says the Beetaloo project will bring dividends to the NT.

Mr Riddle said the Flex 3 could drill a well in 10 days where it can take up to 70 days with a conventional rig. The company has another four H & P rigs on standby if additional wells are required.

Standing alongside Deputy Chief Minister and Mining Minister Nicole Manison, who this week gave the green light to fracking in the Territory, Mr Riddle said this was a significant time in the life of the project.

“The arrival of the HMP Flex 3 Rig, together with the government’s exciting announcement on Wednesday, really marks what I believe as a starting point for the Beetaloo development, so it is absolutely go time in the Beetaloo,” he said.

“With our development we see there being incredible benefits and economic outcomes for local Territorians.

This is what the Helmerich & Payne’s Flex 3 Rig will look like once assembled.

“The scale that we see in quantum of royalties is in the billions of dollars that could flow into the Northern Territory government and Northern Land Council.

“It will obviously be subject to the size of our development that over the next 12 to 24 months we’ll refine what that production step will be.”

“Those benefits range from thousands of new jobs and economic activity that comes from employment that everyday Territorians will receive.

“There’s energy security coming on new gas supplies coming out of the Beetaloo that we’ll produce in the next few years and finally through our production at the Beetaloo, the new royalties will start to flow to the Northern Territory government, the Northern Land Council and the Traditional Owners.

Tamboran Joel Riddle, Mining Minister Nicole Manison and Helmerich & Payne representative John Bell are excited for the Beetaloo project to begin.

“Out of those local royalties there will be enhanced economic activity that will come through the creation of new jobs, new hospitals, new roads, schools and so we want to be a really positive driving force for the Northern Territory.”

Mr Riddle said a regulatory tweak by the NT government to stop flaring during testing at a gas site has meant production at Tamboran’s EP98 well could be producing as early as next year.

Ms Manison said it had been an important week after years of work preparing a safe and sustainable regulatory regime for fracking.

“We can go forward with the development of a safe and sustainable onshore gas industry because we have implemented those full recommendations of the (Pepper) report,” Ms Manison said.

“This means we’re going to see further exploration out there in the Beetaloo and hopefully we will see that get to the point where it goes into production. This is really good for Territorians because it will mean that we will receive royalties from that development.”

Helmerich & Payne representative John Bell, who as visiting the Territory for the first time, said about 180 of the Flex rigs currently operated in the United States.

He said he recently had his first visit to the Beetaloo.

“It was great. It was like west Texas,” he said.