Australian shale play faces rocky ride

The Northern Territory, a key LNG centre, holds huge reserves of shale gas. But will regulations stifle development?

On a low-lying peninsula just south of Australia's largest tropical city, Darwin, lie two liquefied natural gas export facilities, signifying the leading role the Northern Territory (NT) plays as a global LNG exporter. At Bladon Point, the Inpex-Total joint venture Ichthys LNG project is poised to go live this year, liquefying gas and condensate sourced from the Browse Basin brought onshore via an 890km (553-mile) pipeline. At Wickham Point, the ConocoPhillips-operated Darwin LNG facility processes gas from the Bayu Undan field in the Timor Sea, and is looking at expanding capacity to include supply from the Barossa-Caldita fields. But this isn't all that the NT has to offer. The region also