A company working in the Northern Territory’s fracking industry says it could be producing gas within three years in what some are describing as an energy revolution.
Liquids-rich gas was discovered in shale on the edge of the state’s Beetaloo Basin and Empire Energy is about to conduct its first vertical frack at the Carpentaria-1 site - 850 kilometres south east of Darwin - after drilling a well last October.
The shale gas industry transformed the American energy market in the first part of the century, and it is hoped Australia could reap similar benefits from the Beetaloo Basin.
While the federal government has identified the gas below the Beetaloo as a key part of Australia’s post-COVID economic recovery, environmentalists have raised concerns over the risk to local water sources and the increased emissions from fracking.
However, the Northern Territory’s Labor government is backing the industry in despite other state governments putting restrictions and even bans on onshore gas.
