Beetaloo Basin gas piped north to 'keep the lights on' in NT from 2026

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Northern Territory government is hailing a new agreement which will see fracked gas flow into the Northern Territory energy market from next year, as a deal that will "save the territory". It comes less than a week after the government warned of potential blackout across the Top End, due to a gas supply shortage.

Transcript

00:00Signed, sealed and the promise of gas delivered.

00:06Beedaloo is going to be the place that's going to save the Territory.

00:10It's going to literally keep the lights on in the Northern Territory.

00:13Fracked gas from the basin to be piped into the NT market under the new agreement.

00:19To households, businesses and industry, the cost to taxpayers unknown.

00:24We think it's going to be in the second half of next year

00:27and I can assure you that our team is working night and day

00:30to get the gas flowing into the local market as quickly as possible.

00:33The deal is the second of its kind in recent months,

00:36with a similar agreement with Tamboran Resources in September.

00:40Beedaloo Energy pledging more energy security and royalties for the Territory

00:45before it turns its focus to supplying gas to the East Coast and overseas.

00:50We are focused on delivering gas into the NT market first

00:54because this gas belongs to the people of the Northern Territory.

00:58The Territory's main offshore gas supplier, ENI Australia's Blacktip field,

01:03is currently out of action due to damage from Cyclone Fina,

01:07triggering a warning of possible rolling blackouts.

01:10But Blacktip's gas supplies have been dwindling for years.

01:15This is not a good situation that the Territory finds itself in,

01:18where it has to put essentially all of its eggs into the beadly basket

01:21in order to keep the lights on.

01:24But that's been a consequence of decisions

01:26of a number of previous governments in the Territory

01:30who never really put in place Plan B.

01:33After years of environmental protests and a lengthy moratorium,

01:38investor confidence in fracking appears to be rising,

01:41with Beedaloo Energy saying it's also planning to start construction

01:45on a new plant to get the gas flowing north.

01:51On the other hand, the Territory is the last thing that we have

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