The McArthur Basin and Beetaloo Sub-basin contain extensive shale gas resources with exploration activity accelerating.
Process
Shale gas and liquids is the term for petroleum accumulations of naturally occurring oil and gas trapped that has not migrated from the source rock as it is also a low permeability reservoir. These accumulations require reservoir stimulation using the hydraulic fracturing process to develop.
These petroleum systems are often termed ‘unconventional’ as they have a relatively short history in petroleum oil and gas exploration. Shale gas and liquids petroleum systems are common in sedimentary basins. However there is high risk and costs associated with identifying sweet spots where hydrocarbons are trapped and can be successfully stimulated.
Unconventional petroleum systems can also include tight sands, basin centred gas and deep coal gas. Exploration for these commodities in the NT is limited and more information can be found in NTGS Report 22.
Prospectivity
Shale gas and liquids plays are hosted within thick shales in the Beetaloo Sub-basin and are known to extend over hundreds of kilometres across the greater McArthur Basin. Exploration of the Beetaloo Sub-basin is at an advanced stage with industry activity accelerating.
The Amadeus and Georgina basins have been intermittently explored for shale gas and liquids and are prospective frontier basins that remain largely underexplored by world standards.
Hydraulic fracturing
In late 2016 the NT Government commissioned an Independent Scientific Inquiry into Hydraulic Fracturing in the NT. Following the release of the Inquiry's final report in March 2018, the government accepted all 135 recommendations in the report and lifted the moratorium on hydraulic fracturing of unconventional gas in the NT.
Updates on the implementation of the recommendations from the inquiry, and changes to the regulatory framework for petroleum exploration and production can be found at the NT Government's onshore gas website.
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.
