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
Also in this section
9 January 2026
The Latin American producer’s crude prospects rely on a multi-pronged approach where even the relatively easy wins will take considerable time, effort and cost
9 January 2026
While many forecasters are reasserting the importance of oil and gas, petrostates should be under no illusion things are changing, and faster than they might think
8 January 2026
Indonesia and Malaysia are at the dawn of breathtaking digital capabilities. Their energy infrastructure must keep up with their ambitions
8 January 2026
The next five years will be critical for the North Sea, and it will be policy not geology that will decide the basin’s future
