These analysts are completely missing the point of the pipeline....

These analysts are completely missing the point of the pipeline. They all think it's to connect NT onshore shale, and if that were true the criticisms would be justified. You need to prove it works economically before you build a pipeline.

But it's not for that. They're putting the cart before the horse. The pipeline business case will stand or fall on the offshore fields (~1 TCF sized) in the Bonaparte Basin and others which are too small for standalone LNG but are easily within pipeline distance to the coast.

Those fields are currently stranded due to complete lack of market in Darwin and the prohibitive costs of building an LNG plant up there, not to mention the fact they're too small to justify LNG anyway. Hooking these into the east coast gas market is the answer, particularly if there are underperforming CSG-LNG plants there as some expect.

Once the pipeline is done, THEN they can start worrying about whether the NT onshore stuff works. If it doesn't (as I expect) then it doesn't matter because there is enough offshore gas in NT to last decades.