ABC.net.auTue 07 Aug 12, 10:13am AEDTBy Caddie BrainThe first...

ABC.net.au
Tue 07 Aug 12, 10:13am AEDT

By Caddie Brain
The first fracking of a horizontal well on an unconventional oil and gas resource in Australia could begin in the Northern Territory by the end of this month.

Fracking is a controversial method of extraction that uses water, sand and chemicals to break up the rock.

Canadian company Petrofrontier completed drilling the horizontal wells last August near Tobermorey Station on the Queensland border, about 450 kilometres north-east of Alice Springs.

Each well runs for more than a kilometre underground.

Petrofrontier chief executive officer Paul Bennett says pending Northern Territory Government approval, the company wants to frack three of them to make the operation cost effective.

"It costs a million dollars to get a frack crew out here, for example, so you want to make sure you do two or three [wells] and that's what we're planning on doing by the middle of August," he said.

"It's really no different to what's going on anywhere else in the world.

"It's just a little newer here, so people are trying to think it through and we're working with the government at the moment."

The Northern Territory Government says an application by PetroFrontier is currently undergoing assessment.