NT gas pipeline in doubt on fracking fears, page-5

Not really. We discussed all this in detail a year or so ago.

I pointed out it may actually be a blessing in disguise because any fraccing ban (assuming it's even still in place by the time NGP is open for business) would probably force them to drill laterals instead, like they did at Surprise. Fraccing is an older technology and in vertical wells is being superceded except in cases where you have a very thick reservoir. Lateral drilling will generally give better results, especially when drilling between existing wells because you already know the depth of the reservoir of your start and endpoint so there's less risk of losing the reservoir.

But hopefully common sense will prevail and fraccing will be cleared at least in areas like Mereenie that have used it since the 1990s with no problems. That will give them the option of fracs or laterals, and they'll be able to test both and see which offers more bang for buck.