The Northern Territory government has today given the green light to development of its shale gas industry in the Beetaloo.
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There are many experts who believe the Beetaloo could be among the richest shale gas fields on the planet.
The controversial decision has been many years in the making and comes despite renewed concerns over the impact on the nation's greenhouse gas emissions.
Today the government announced it would allow the gas industry to go ahead and put the onus on the development companies to meet public concerns.
The government said it had completed the 135 recommendations from the 2018 Pepper inquiry, which said industry risks could be managed.
Energy companies can now apply for development projects.
The decision comes despite opponents of the gas industry saying the world has moved away from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
But the federal government says the Beetaloo's supposed gas riches are vital as a transition fuel for the nation to move from coal-based power to renewables.
The Beetaloo is a supposed energy-rich El Dorado, a little known region in the east of NT outback which drillers have proven as layers of gas-rich shale rocks buried several kilometres below its sprawling cattle stations.
Some of those station owners have protested about the gas exploration on this traditional cattle country which is held on long leases.
The Beetaloo is 500km south-east of Darwin and covers 28,000 square kilometres.
It is estimated to contain 6.6 trillion feet of gas, enough to power the nation and still satisfy overseas customers for many decades.
Brittle rocks lay in a thick carpet underground, as far as four kilometres deep but, with modern mining methods, ripe for the plucking.
The thousands of coal seam gas wells in Queensland are not producing as they once did, the NT is the great white hope.
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Shale gas is like any other gas, and can be used in cooking, heating, powering factories or sending overseas for export dollars.
Hydraulic fracturing, a mining process which turned oil-poor USA into a net exporter, is called fracking for short.
In the coal seams, or the NT's shale rocks, the gas is trapped in the rocks and has to be coaxed into letting it go.
Artificial stimulation, using a fluid made up of mostly water and sand is injected under into the wall to break the rocks open and release the gas.
It is the remaining 0.5 per cent of the fluid which scares the environmentalists and above ground landholders the most.
A mix of chemicals has to be injected through water aquifers and into the land to make fracking work, not a vision of clean and green which typifies NT exports so far.
Successive prime ministers, including Anthony Albanese, are convinced fracking is both safe and efficient and has urged the NT to get on with the job.
The NT's Labor Government instituted a moratorium on fracking in 2016 while appointing a scientific panel which later gave to go-ahead provided a number of recommendations were met.
A key recommendation was that "the NT and Australian governments seek to ensure that there is no net increase in the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions emitted in Australia from any onshore shale gas produced in the NT".
There are some estimates opening up the Beetaloo to gas mining could increase the nation's greenhouse gases by 117 million tonnes equivalent to 22 per cent of Australia's current annual emissions.
But today the government said proponents of gas production projects would be required to submit a greenhouse gas abatement plan "outlining their pathway to net zero".
The NT government has bet big on its gas resources, for export dollars and jobs.
Chris McLennan
ACM national rural property writer based in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria. Career journalist. Multi award winner.
ACM national rural property writer based in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria. Career journalist. Multi award winner.
