gas

Take out the hype and Beetaloo gas is a pretty thin project. The sub-basin, 900 km north of Alice Springs, is “estimated” to contain 500 trillion cubic feet of gas. The NT Government refers to this estimate as being “by industry”.

We all know Woodside, Australia’s biggest gas producer, but many might not realise it is also one of the country’s biggest CO2 emitters ... the Australian energy sector has been all too willing to overpromise on what is achievable in reducing their CO2 footprint, as a result they are now desperately searching for solutions. This, unfortunately, is where WA farmland comes into play ... That win-win plan is to plant trees – lots of trees – on productive farmland and then lock that land up for the next 100 years so it no longer produces food or fibre.

The Territory Government and Mereenie and Palm Valley joint ventures have signed a six year gas supply deal commencing from 2025. The agreements will provide energy security to the Territory until the end of 2030 ... The Mereenie and Palm Valley Fields are the largest onshore gas production fields in the Territory and have been secure energy sources for over 40 years.

Peko Park was lively as Mudburra musician Ray Dimaakarri Dixon and Jingili musician Stuart Joel Nugget, along with other musicians, performed at the Tennant Creek stop of the Water of Life Tour ... In addition to the music, there were discussions about the effects of fracking in the Barkly region and how the community can collaborate to prevent it.

The Chair of a Territory Aboriginal Corporation has highlighted Traditional Owners’ concerns about a major blaze from Jemena’s gas pipeline in Queensland, cutting gas to Gladstone. Chair of Nurrdalinji Native Title Aboriginal Corporation, Djingili Elder Samuel Sandy, a former resident of Elliott, said if an event like that happened in the NT it would be a catastrophe, given the major bushfires across the region last September.

Who would have thought that 34 years after the collapse of communism in the USSR and 43 years after the Hawke-Keating government started the process of dismantling Australia’s prices and income regulatory system, that Australia would be back reintroducing a Soviet style price control mechanism that caps gas and coal wholesale prices. Someone has not been reading their economic history. There are no lack of lessons from the past  that point to the unintended consequences of governments intervening in markets in an attempt to address short term political problems.

Chris Oldfield. The Liberal Shadow Cabinet will continue to support a moratorium on fracking in the SE which runs until 2028. It will also continue to work on land access through agricultural properties to mines because “both agriculture and mining are important to the economy”.

Tom Zaunmayr, National Indigenous Times. When Jingili Elder Pompey Raymond reflects on the Northern Territory’s oil and gas industry, he sees careers for young people, education, community infrastructure and a pathway to protect his country. A senior ceremony man born on Beetaloo Station, Mr Raymond believes the debate around industry is often hijacked by those who should not be speaking for the region.

A patch of underwater land in the Gulf of Carpentaria could hold several trillion cubic feet of natural gas or hundreds of millions of barrels of oil – at least that’s what a company with the rights to drill it for exploration is saying.