Minister for Resources and Northern Australia, Matt Canavan, has welcomed a new seismic survey probing for gas and mineral resources in the Northern Territory’s Barkly region.
The 820km survey is in an area where little exploration has previously taken place and is being hailed as a potential ‘missing link’ between Mt. Isa and the Betaloo sub-basin.
Mr Canavan described the Beetaloo as a sub-basin with potential to deliver 178,000 Petajoules of shale gas, a bigger basket than any conventional gas resources on the North West Shelf.
“It’s exciting to have a region that could promise the same potential resources,” Mr Canavan said. “Over 25 years a moderate scale of onshore gas development in the NT could create more than 6,500 jobs and be worth more than $9 billion nationally.”
He added that in the Barkly region, mining already contributes $17 million annually to the Australian economy.
“With this new data, we could expand this significantly and create more jobs for Northern Australia,” he added.
Santos has already farmed into Armour Energy acreage in the South Nicholson Basin and the NT is experiencing a resurgence in activity since the moratorium on hydraulic fracturing was lifted.
Under the Exploring for the Future Program, the Federal Government has contributed $4.5 million to the survey and the Geological Survey an additional $140,000.
The survey started in September 2019 near Camooweal and will stretch to near Elliot.
Data from the survey will be processed in due course and is set for release in the first half of 2020.
