The Beetaloo Sub-basin contains globally significant shale gas resources with advanced exploration and appraisal progressing towards pilot production in 2026.
Process
Shale gas and liquids are accumulations of hydrocarbons that are hosted within shale formations, and remain trapped within low permeability source rocks. These accumulations require reservoir stimulation using the hydraulic fracturing process to develop.
These petroleum systems are often termed ‘unconventional’ as they cannot be extracted using conventional vertical drilling and pumping methods, and require advanced engineering and technologies for recovery. These systems can be continuous over very large areas in comparison with conventional accumulations, but are typically more expensive to develop.
Unconventional petroleum systems can also include tight sands, basin centred gas and coal seam gas, but exploration for these commodities in the NT has been relatively limited. More information can be found in NTGS Report 22.
Prospectivity
The Beetaloo Sub-basin, an entirely subsurface sub-basin of the greater McArthur Basin, covers more than 30,000 km2 between Mataranka and Elliott. The Beetaloo Sub-basin one of the most substantial shale gas basins outside of North America, and is demonstrated to be highly favourable for shale gas production. The stacked, gas-rich shales of the Velkerri Formation are considered to be comparable in scale, thermal maturity and physical and geological characteristics to the highly productive Marcellus Shale in the United States (see Loughry 2025, 2026)
Exploration and appraisal activities have continued to expand and refine substantial shale gas contingent resources within the Beetaloo Sub-basin, with ongoing drilling, hydraulic fracturing and production testing supporting progression toward pilot production and future commercial development. Shales of the Velkerri Formation have prospective gas-in-place estimates of the order of 430 trillion cubic feet of gas, and flow testing of lateral wells to date shows flow rates comparable to productive US shale plays.
The NT Government is committed to supporting the development of an onshore gas industry, with a strong focus on the commercialisation of the Beetaloo Sub-basin. To find out more information visit Territory Gas.
In addition to the shales of the Beetaloo Sub-basin, older shale units within the greater McArthur Basin such as the Barney Creek Formation also have demonstrated potential to generate hydrocarbons, The Proterozoic Lawn Hill Platform and South Nicholson Basins near the Queensland border are correlatives of the greater McArthur Basin and have potential for shale gas, with productive source rocks being identified in the Carrara Sub-basin (see Grosjean et al 2022)
The Amadeus Basin and Georgina Basin have been intermittently explored for shale gas and liquids and are prospective frontier basins that remain largely underexplored by world standards.
View the distribution of petroleum wells and seismic lines and download attributed spatial data across the Territory’s onshore basins through the Northern Territory Geological Survey's (NTGS) online web mapping system STRIKE.
