A legal fight is brewing between cattle producers and a mining company that is looking to explore for gas in the Northern Territory's Beetaloo Basin.
The gas-rich basin, located about 750km southeast of Darwin, has become the centre of a heated contest between gas companies with fracking aspirations and environmental groups, locals and Traditional Owners.
The federal government has attempted to speed up the development of the gas field, with a $50 million grants program to encourage exploration.
However, the most recent company approved for a $7.5 million grant, Sweetpea Petroleum, does not have permission to enter the property where it wants to drill, and the dispute over access has ended up in the NT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NTCAT).
Sweetpea, a subsidiary of Tamboran Resources, has an exploration permit that covers portions of Tanumbirini and Beetaloo Stations but is yet to negotiate a land access agreement with either of the properties.
This means it cannot enter the properties to proceed with its exploration activities until the issue is settled and its Environment Management Plan (EMP) is approved by the NT Environment Minister Eva Lawler.
The cattle station owners are opposed to fracking on their properties, and after the parties could not reach an agreement, the matter was taken to the NTCAT.
NTCAT ordered the two parties to come to an agreement about a minimum compensation for wells to be drilled on the properties.
The dispute has now reached the NT Supreme Court, with the station owners appealing the tribunal's reasons behind its decision, further delaying a land access agreement being settled.
On Thursday, Sweetpea withdrew its EMP application for proposed well drilling and fracking on Tanumbirini and Beetaloo Stations, citing a need for more stakeholder engagement.
"Based on feedback from important stakeholders, Tamboran has voluntarily withdrawn an EMP that was submitted in January to allow further stakeholder engagement," a Tamboran spokesperson said.
'Frankly irresponsible'
Environment Centre NT co-director Kirsty Howey has slammed the federal government's decision to award more taxpayer money to gas companies.
"To be funnelling money into fracking the Beetaloo instead of mitigating and adapting to climate change is frankly irresponsible on a grand and epic scale," she said.
If fracking goes ahead in the Beetaloo sub-basin, Ms Howey said Australia's carbon emissions could shoot up by 22 per cent, according to the federal government's own estimates.
"It's irresponsible to be proceeding with this industry, with so many questions unanswered about how these emissions are going to be offset," Ms Howey said.
A Tamboran spokesperson said the company's "ambition is to become a net-zero gas producer, for its equity share Scope 1 and 2 emissions".
"Other long-term solutions like carbon capture, utilisation and storage, and integration of renewables will be incorporated as part of Tamboran's future developments."
None of the gas companies exploring the Beetaloo Basin are required to help offset any carbon emissions produced by fracking, nor is the federal government.
The NT government is yet to reveal how it will meet all 135 recommendations of a major inquiry in 2020 that outlined how to mitigate the environmental risks of fracking.
A key commitment, Recommendation 9.8, states that both the NT and Australian governments must seek to ensure there is no net increase in the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions emitted in Australia from any onshore shale gas produced in the NT.
Federal grants disputed
Last month, Mr Pitt reissued millions of dollars in grants to Imperial Oil & Gas, a subsidiary of Empire Energy, just months after a federal judge ruled the grants invalid.
Justice John Griffiths declared the grants "legally unreasonable" because the federal government discreetly awarded the money to Imperial Oil & Gas while a court challenge was underway.
The new grants reissued by Mr Pitt last month are worth a combined $19.4 million, and will support Imperial Oil & Gas to continue drilling the same three petroleum exploration wells previously in contention.
Speaking to the ABC in Darwin, Mr Pitt said he wanted Imperial Oil & Gas and Sweetpea Petroleum to explore as many wells as possible in the upcoming dry season.
"We must ensure Australia's national energy security," he said.
"The gas-led recovery is a big part of that, but of course it will be hand in hand with our agreements around the Paris Agreement."
