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Jemena's Northern Territory Gas Strategy: Connecting the Beetaloo Basin with the East Coast Gas Market

Jemena

  • Jemena, owner of the Northern Gas Pipeline, has released its Northern Territory Gas Strategy – the quickest and cheapest way to bring Beetaloo gas to market.
  • Under the strategy, early stage Beetaloo gas could supply up to 10 per cent of east coast gas market demand using existing pipeline infrastructure.
  • Further stages of the strategy could see Jemena construct a ~370km pipeline connecting the Northern Gas Pipeline with the Beetaloo Basin.

Leading energy infrastructure company and owner of the Northern Gas Pipeline, Jemena, has formally released its Northern Territory Gas Strategy – a customer-led plan which will utilise existing infrastructure to transport Beetaloo gas to the east coast gas market from as early as 2026.

Currently, up to 90TJ/d of Beetaloo gas can be transported via the Northern Gas Pipeline to the east coast gas market as soon as production commences in the basin. Under stage two of Jemena’s strategy, the Northern Gas Pipeline will be augmented and expanded to increase its capacity by about 45 per cent, meaning the pipeline will be able to transport around 130TJ/d of gas from the Beetaloo Basin – roughly 10 per cent of typical east coast demand.

Commissioned in late 2019, the Northern Gas Pipeline is the only pipeline in the Northern Territory directly connected to Australia’s east coast gas market via Queensland.

Further stages of Jemena’s Northern Territory Gas Strategy will see the company explore works to construct a new ~370km pipeline lateral north from the Territory’s Barkly region to the Beetaloo Basin. Work will also be undertaken to further increase the capacity of the Northern Gas Pipeline in line with market demand.

Jemena’s Managing Director David Gillespie said the company is focussed on truly understanding the needs of the market, particularly upstream producers in the Beetaloo, to ensure the Northern Territory Gas Strategy reflects the reality on the ground.

“We’re listening to our stakeholders to understand how we can best meet their needs and make their projects a success. As a first step, we are conducting a market-led Expression of Interest (EOI) process to engage with producers in the Northern Territory as well as gas consumers to understand future pipeline needs within the Beetaloo Basin or the Northern Territory more broadly,” said Mr Gillespie.   

“Our strategy focuses on effectively utilising established infrastructure rather than undertaking large-scale new infrastructure builds, which have an estimated capex investment of between $4-6 billion and won’t be complete until the early 2030s at the earliest.   

“By gradually augmenting the capacity of the Northern Gas Pipeline, we can match transportation capacity with production volumes, making the Northern Gas Pipeline the most cost-effective way of delivering Beetaloo gas to market.

“This is a win-win for upstream gas producers and consumers as it will enable Beetaloo gas, particularly early-stage Beetaloo gas, to be delivered to market quickly and without the price tag associated with large-scale new infrastructure builds. This gas is crucial for large industrials and Australia’s $100 billion manufacturing sector which simply cannot wait half a decade for new pipeline builds to be completed.”

Working with Customers and Communities

Mr Gillespie said Jemena’s Northern Territory Gas Strategy reflects many of the insights the company gained throughout the planning and construction of the $800 million Northern Gas Pipeline between 2015 and 2019. That project went on to receive the Significant Investment Award from the Commonwealth Government while creating over 900 jobs, 75 per cent of which were awarded to people living in the communities surrounding the pipeline route. The project also saw Jemena invest over $50 million in small businesses across the Territory.

In addition to its work developing the Beetaloo Basin, Jemena continues to support local Territory businesses and community organisations, having recently sponsored 20 Indigenous delegates to attend the NT Resources Week. The business was also the foundation partner, and continues to support, Saltbush Enterprise’s Foundation to the Future program, which is delivering holistic mentoring and job readiness training to support Indigenous Territorians into employment.

The Beetaloo Basin, spanning 28,000 sqkm, is one of Australia’s most promising new sources of natural gas with estimates suggesting it contains more than a thousand times Australia's annual domestic gas consumption. Government estimates have found that developing the basin could create more than 13,000 jobs by 2040 and lift economic activity by more than $17 billion.


Contact details:

 Jemena Media 0428 742 804