buyer depth, page-15

06Feb08 ......Meo Australia gets a mention...

THE Territory's billion-dollar boom is set to slow but will take off again in the next decade, with $12.369billion worth of developments planned, economic research house BIS Shrapnel figures show.

This is in addition to the $5 billion in projects being built now, as reported on the front page of Monday's Northern Territory News.

BIS Shrapnel forecasts Territory construction activity to slow by more than a third in 2007/08 as work winds down on Alcan's G3 alumina refinery expansion and on several oil and gas fields.

While this will be offset by rising pipeline construction activity, the next upswing in construction is not expected until next decade.

The $12.369 billion is spread over mining, oil and gas projects. More than half of the mammoth figure is taken up by the Greater Sunrise gas project _ included in the figures as a $7billion development.

BIS Shrapnel senior manager of infrastructure and mining Adrian Hart said Sunrise would be huge.

"It would see a big boom in construction activity in the NT," he said.

"We've put it down as $7billion but in reality it could be $8billion plus."

Mr Hart said he'd like to see the gas brought to the Territory for processing.

"It would be a bigger bang for the NT," he said.

Woodside is assessing how to process the gas, including possibly piping it to the Territory.

The company remained tight-lipped yesterday on what it would do, and on whether the Territory could purchase some of the gas.

Oil and gas projects account for more than half the BIS Shrapnel forecast, with MEO Australia's Evans Shoal and Tassie Shoal projects accounting for more than $2 billion.

Other projects include Compass Resources Browns Sulfide project at $350 million, and a Darwin to Gove gas pipeline slated at $650 million.

But some of the projects are contingent on global economic conditions - and may be shelved if commodity prices fall significantly.

Mr Hart said he didn't believe an impending US recession would affect the NT economy, as China's internal demand would be strong enough to sustain the huge resources boom.

"China has strong levels of demand for their domestic growth," he said.