Yes, half a billion. It's close to what McLendon of Chesapeake...

Yes, half a billion. It's close to what McLendon of Chesapeake fame committed to fund EEG before he so unfortunately suicided due to insider trading charges. The farm out sent EEG shares to over $1.That deal fell over when his estate withdrew from the deal. It's also on the record Empire management are in discussions to secure a farm out.

If you want context for the scale of investment required look at the size of the prize, which as stated for over a decade by Empire is similar to The Marcellus.

Here is an excerpt from this week's SMH...

"The opportunity for Empire to scale up its Beetaloo gas production is immense if gas flows end up coming out as expected from the early wells. Empire essentially has a three staged plan; initially produce up to 25TJ a day in phase 1 with first revenues of $110m a year expected by 2025 at plateau.

Phase two will see the company pump out 200TJ/d to supply the east coast of Australia that many say is currently experiencing a gas shortage crisis. The goal from phase 3 is to churn out 1BCF of gas a day and supply the LNG export markets. The company reckons it can land LNG in Tokyo Bay for just US$6.50 MMBtu.

And the rub? Well, Empire’s preliminary financial modelling shows a project net present value for phase 2 coming in at A$2.5b and phase three is showing an NPV of wait for it……A$14.5b."