The Australian 21st Oct 2020 by Nick Cater An article in the Australian Newspaper - summary below:
Origin
Energy and other companies have stakes in the hydrocarbon-rich Beetaloo Basin
600km south of Darwin.
In
fact, the traditional owners of this sparsely
populated land have given their blessing to this and other projects. Under
agreements painstakingly brokered by the Northern Land Council, they will
receive a percentage of revenue.
The
threat to the environment is, (it
is claimed is) , non-existent because Energy companies have
to jump through hoops to receive environmental approval under the strict rules
imposed by the NT government. Sacred sites have been identified and
ruled out of bounds.
Three
innovations in the last quarter-century made the extraction of shale gas
possible and profitable.
1. The use of slick water, water mixed with sand and small quantities of household
chemicals to open microscopic cracks releasing
hydrocarbons.
2. The ability to drill around corners
for several kilometres and
3. The technology to transport liquid
gas economically by sea turned shale gas into a lucrative commodity.
The
Beetaloo shale was deposited one and a half billion years ago and lies in
largely unbroken strata up to 2km below the surface.
Geoscience
Australia calculates the quantity of gas at 250 trillion cubic feet, more than
30 times the gas extracted from Bass Strait and 15 times the capacity of the
Browse Basin offshore and north of Broome.
Shale
gas has rewritten the business model of the energy sector, and could change the business model of the NT. Darwin could be
transformed from a government-funded service centre for Indigenous misery to
the new Dallas, or at the very least something resembling Perth, a city
where lawyers, accountants, engineers and truck drivers live comfortably on the
back of mining.
The
shale revolution in the US has been unstoppable. Cheap gas is rapidly replacing
coal in generating electricity. Chemical manufacturing and other energy-intense
industries have returned on shore,
With
gas comes oil. In the past 10 years, US oil production has risen from seven
million to 17 million barrels a day, 50 per cent more than Saudi Arabia.
The
science behind fracturing is well established. A three-year study by CSIRO
published early this year found fracking had no impact on air or water
quality. Standard water treatment techniques
reduced levels of geogenic chemicals — contaminants from geological formations
— within acceptable limits and water recovered to its pre-fractured state
within 40 days.
The
NT government ended its moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in 2018 after a
scientific study found drilling for shale gas was safe and lucrative, injecting up to $17bn in the NT economy and creating
more than 500 jobs.
Yet
the complexities of land ownership remain one of the biggest barriers to
extracting the wealth buried hundreds of metres underground. In
the US the formula was simple, since minerals belong to the landowner.
In
Australia, where royalties accrue to state governments, securing consent of
landowners for a rig to be placed on their property is somewhat harder.
The
solution is to grant landowners a share of royalties, the formula effectively
applied in the NT.
Yet
the process of identifying the rightful owners is far from simple. In the
Beetaloo Basin it falls to the Northern Land Council to figure it out.
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