IMO for Ark to survive as an asset given the recent USA debacle of Shale Oil having over 90% of it's projected Oil plays as - tight (there's a lot more to it, but you get the idea), then as we know, we are going to have to locate some of those projected straight oil plays to become viable there.
We know water is a problem there, but you may want to have a read of this, as what OZ Minerals have been doing for a couple of Wells for their mines in Arckaringa Basin. Also keeping in mind what they did find was high in salinity.
http://www.groundwater2010.com/documents/1GDerwinLyons.pdf
In short I sincerely doubt we would get to mess with either Artesian/Water Basin from either the SA Gov. or Social License for fracking. Can't blame them either.
On the lighter side this is a short article posted by one of the crew who undertook some 3D seismic testing, you can imagine why it's not a cheap exercise.
http://theogm.com/2014/04/01/arckaringa-basin/
Overall even if we managed to get or produce fresh water at high expense, introducing such into what water tables there are and any subsequent raising of salt in the dirt may turn into a environmental nightmare. I'm not a greeny, but that supposition would give anyone pause. An example is what happened in western NSW farming when water raised the salt table there.
There are apparently non-water fracking alternatives being touted, advances in the US being made, however the actual feasibility/effectiveness/cost of such I have yet to see anything definitive.
All that aside, if we can locate some of the straight oil plays, I will settle for a fraction of what is projected as possible. Let's say a simple 1 Billion Barrels will do. ;-)
