Northern Territory Shale Developers Look Towards LNG Production

Developers of shale gas in Australia's Northern Territory say they plan to replicate the liquefied natural gas boom in the state of Queensland, but without the duplication of infrastructure and overspending that occurred in the 2010s.

The territory's Beetaloo sub-basin was surveyed over 30 years ago but the first commercial volumes of shale gas were shipped only this week from Tamboran Resources’ Shenandoah gas project.

Like Queensland's coal seam gas-to-LNG ambitions, Beetaloo shale aspirations have met with initial scepticism by many industry watchers. But the Sunshine State now supplies over a third of Australia's LNG exports and the nation is the world's No.2 exporter.

Beetaloo output is currently a modest 40 terajoules (TJ) a day, but producers ultimately envisage developments on par with the LNG industry.

"The learned experience of the coal seam rollout is that it's not in anyone's interest to go their own way," Beetaloo Energy CEO Alex Underwood said at the South East Asia Australia Offshore & Onshore Conference.

Shale developers hope that their gas will find multiple buyers such as LNG plants in Darwin owned by