Santos executive vice president Brett Darley has said the company was reconsidering the potential of gas fracking in the McArthur basin and Beetaloo sub-basin to help fill its Darwin and Gladstone LNG plants, with the company planning “further appraisals” in 2026, it has been reported. The company has exploration tenure in the eastern Beetaloo sub-basin in a joint venture with Tamboran Resources, and secured approval for an environmental management plan for wells in the McArthur Basin in 2019 but does not list the projects on its website.The NT News reported that Mr Darley told an investor briefing late last month that its offshore Barossa project was “a fantastic resource” and suggested increased activity in the Beetaloo. “Beetaloo is the potential project we are really excited about,” Mr Darley was quoted as saying. “We believe we have a sweet spot in the MacArthur Basin, with the Beetaloo being a subset of that.“We are talking tens of trillion cubic feet of gas that could help fill Darwin LNG or Gladstone LNG. “It’s scalable, it’s a drill to fill operation that then we can plan our capital on. So again, fits very well into our operating model. (Another) thing we also like about it is it’s analogous to shales that are currently being developed with current technology in the Marcellus.
“So this isn’t inventing the technology, this is leveraging technology that already exists large scale in the US. “We’re looking to actually do some further appraisal in 2026 and we’re really excited about just how supportive the new Northern Territory government is to actually exploiting these opportunities. This is a fantastic resource for us. ”The NT News reported the Santos’ board was in Darwin this week and chief executive officer Kevin Gallagher said they had confidence in the Northern Territory. “It is the strong support of governments like the Territory’s that give us confidence to continue to invest here,” Mr Gallagher was quoted as saying. “I hope that the industry together with the NT government can unlock the wealth of the Territory’s gas resources over the next four years—both offshore with Barossa but also onshore in the Beetaloo.”
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