The Northern Territory government will allow a full-scale onshore gas industry to go ahead in the gas-rich Beetaloo Basin, five years after a moratorium on fracking was lifted.
Key points:
- The NT Government will allow fracking to go ahead in the Beetaloo Basin
- They say they have implemented all 135 recommendations of the Pepper inquiry
- Scientists claim they have not met a recommendation to offset gas emissions from the project
The government has been racing to tick off 135 recommendations from the 2018 Pepper inquiry, which found industry risks could be managed if its recommendations were implemented in full.
The government said that has been done, and oil and gas companies will be able to make an application for onshore gas production projects, which will be regulated by one of the most robust frameworks in Australia.
It also said it has a new petroleum operations unit to deliver a strong compliance program, which will be funded by a $2 million annual investment.
It comes after the NT government released the findings of a critical, three-year study into fracking in the Beetaloo sub-basin on April 19.
The Strategic Regional Environmental and Baseline Assessment (SREBA), which was a key recommendation from the Pepper inquiry, found no new risks associated with the development of an onshore gas industry.
However, almost 100 scientists published an open letter in national newspapers across Australia on Wednesday, urging the NT government not to allow fracking to go ahead and warning of “the damage it will inflict on our climate”.
In the letter, the scientists claimed one key recommendation of the Pepper inquiry, known as 9.8, had not been addressed.
“[The government] committed to implement all the recommendations of the Scientific Inquiry into Hydraulic Fracturing,” the letter stated.
“Including 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.
“The Northern Territory government has failed to keep its commitment.”
The NT government has said it would get the federal government to commit to helping offset emissions from the Beetaloo Basin in order to satisfy recommendation 9.8.
Two weeks ago NT Environment Minister Lauren Moss was unable to confirm whether that had happened.
Ms Moss instead pointed to the federal government’s safeguard mechanism, the centrepiece of its pledge to reduce carbon emissions by 43 per cent by 2030, and said the government recognised it “[had] a role in this”.