"A big gas project like that will employ a few thousand people for a year or so, or perhaps even less, while it's being constructed, and after that it employs almost nobody," the Institute's Rod Campbell said.
But there are question marks over both the viability of the NT's onshore gas reserves as well as the demand for NT gas in east coast markets.
A recent University of Melbourne report estimated domestic gas consumption may fall about 50 per cent within a decade.
