Beetaloo Lateral Pipeline

This article is part of the Global Fossil Infrastructure Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

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Beetaloo Lateral Pipeline is a series of proposed gas pipeline routes running from the Beetaloo Basin in Northern Territory, Australia to the eastern Australia gas market.

Location

Three segments have been proposed: the Amadeus Gas Pipeline (AGP) Lateral (1a), the Northern Gas Pipeline (NGP) Lateral (1b), and the Beetaloo to Mount Isa Pipeline (BIP) (1c). The potential routes are shown in order from left to right below.

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Project details

Amadeus Gas Pipeline (AGP) Lateral (1a)

• Operator:
• Owner:
• Parent company:
• Capacity: 350 terajoules per day
• Length:
• Diameter:
• Status: Shelved
• Start year: 2025
• Cost:

Northern Gas Pipeline (NGP) Lateral (1b)

• Operator:
• Owner:
• Parent company:
• Capacity: 350 terajoules per day
• Length:
• Diameter:
• Status: Shelved
• Start year: 2025
• Cost:

Beetaloo to Mount Isa Pipeline (BIP) (1c)

• Operator:
• Owner:
• Parent company:
• Capacity: 350 terajoules per day
• Length:
• Diameter:
• Status: Shelved
• Start year: 2025
• Cost:

Background

The Beetaloo is technically a sub-basin within the larger McArthur basin in Australia's Northern Territory. McArthur and Beetaloo are natural gas reservoirs with large potential for fracking, which has embroiled them in a loaded history.

In 2018, the Northern Territory government lifted a two-year fracking moratorium that was in place from concerns about the potential environmental impacts. The lift subjected any further development of natural gas production areas in the Northern Territory to 135 recommendations summed up in Pepper Report. This document, authored by chief justice Rachel Pepper, is known more officially as the Scientific Inquiry into Hydraulic Fracturing of Onshore Unconventional Reservoirs in the Northern Territory.

In parallel, in the 2021 Australian National Gas Infrastructure Plan (NGIP), three different potential pipeline routes were suggested to exploit the Beetaloo. The plan presented three options: small-, medium-, and large-scale development of the basin, noting that the large-scale development would need to be in place by 2025, and large-scale development — if deemed viable by exploration — by 2028. There were no details on potential ownership, though the plan mentions the need for such infrastructure to be in place by 2028 at the latest to avoid domestic and export shortages. But developing the Beetaloo would ostensibly require addressing the Pepper Report's stipulations, and any gas transmission pipelines would hinge on the success of this process, so a pathway forward was unclear for the infrastructure.

In May 2022, friendliness toward oil and gas production in Australia decreased with a shift in the ruling party from the center-right Liberal–National Coalition to the center-left Labor Party, led by Anthony Albanese. Over the next year or so, a substantial part of the NGIP became obsolete, or at least highly unlikely to move forward, but development of the Beetaloo seemed to be an exception.

In May 2023, the Northern Territory government greenlit further gas production in the Beetaloo and was criticized of flouting the Pepper Report conditions.

Public natural gas company Tamboran Resources swiftly publicized its intention to increase its foothold in the basin, and in June 2023 it selected APA Group as the preferred pipeline transmission partner in the enterprise. The first proposed pipeline to arise from this is documented as the Shenandoah South–Amadeus Gas Pipeline Connector.

APA Group also signed with Energy Empire Group to develop a pipeline from Beetaloo to the Daly Waters to McArthur River Gas Pipeline. The first proposed pipeline to arise from this is the Beetaloo–McArthur River Connecting Pipeline.

As of September 2023, there were no clear advances in the Beetaloo Lateral Pipeline projects on this page, and they are currently considered shelved in lieu of other more specific projects that have arisen, detailed in the paragraphs above.

Opposition

In September 2023, a group of scientists and medical experts from the University of Sydney and University of Adelaide published a report demonstrating the negative impacts of oil and gas development for "human health and wellbeing in Australia", criticizing in particular the Northern Territory government's desire to unlock Beetaloo resources.

Expansion projects

Beetaloo Lateral Pipeline capacity expansion

As part of potential large-scale development of the Beetaloo Basin, one of the three lateral pipeline options above would need to be expanded up to 1700 terajoules per day by 2028 (implying a capacity expansion of 1350 terajoules per day).

• Operator:
• Owner:
• Parent company:
• Capacity: 1350 terajoules per day
• Length:
• Diameter:
• Status: Shelved
• Start year: 2028
• Cost:

Further Beetaloo Basin expansion

The National Gas Infrastructure Plan suggested further expansion projects to fully exploit resources in the Beetaloo Basin. Each expansion suggested is accounted for on the individual pipeline project pages.

Small-scale Beetaloo Basin development

• A new 350 terajoules per day lateral pipeline to connect Beetaloo, to be completed by 2025.
• Expansions to 350 terajoules per day for the Amadeus Gas Pipeline (AGP), Northern Gas Pipeline (NGP), and Carpentaria Gas Pipeline (CGP) (depending on the choice of lateral), to transport initial Beetaloo volumes to be completed by 2025.

Large-scale Beetaloo Basin development

• Upgrades to the Beetaloo Lateral Pipeline to up to 1700 terajoules per day, sequentially from 2028, mentioned above in possible expansion projects.
• Twinning the Northern Gas Pipeline (NGP) (up to 1700 terajoules per day) and CGP (up to 1200 terajoules per day) to transport higher Beetaloo volumes, to be completed by 2028.
• A new ~500 terajoules per day pipeline to connect NGP at Mount Isa to the new Galilee Gas Pipeline (GGP) to be completed by 2028, if Beetaloo development goes large scale.
• Upgrading the GGP to ~700 terajoules per day pipeline connecting the Northern Gas Pipeline (NGP) extension at Longreach, through to Injune, to be completed by 2028 depending on viability of large scale Beetaloo development.
• Twinning the Queensland Hunter Gas Pipeline (QGP) sized to 600–700 terajoules per day to facilitate Beetaloo and Galilee / North Bowen supply by 2028.