A company facing fines for refusing to front a senate committee investigating gas subsidies has overnight become the biggest player in the Northern Territory's Beetaloo Basin.
After racing to raise millions of dollars in investments, the company now has power to explore for gas buried deep in the basin, across almost 2 million acres.
Origin Energy announced on Monday it would be abandoning plans to frack for gas amid what it described as "uncertain and expensive efforts to drive the projects into the production phase".
Tamboran locked in more than $195 million from investors in a matter of days, of which more than half came from "strategic money out of the US", according to the company's chief executive Joel Riddle.
He said that included Parsley Energy billionaire Bryan Sheffield and the "largest rig company out of the US", Helmerich and Payne, which would be providing "the first of five modern US rigs into the Beetaloo starting next year".
"They recognise that the Beetaloo is sort of the next large shale play in the world," he said.
Climate Council energy analyst, Andrew Stock, a former Origin executive, said Origin's move to abandon its interests in the Beetaloo suggested the company recognised the crumbling case for new gas exploration in Australia.
But Mr Riddle said he couldn't disagree more that the move was a red flag.
He said gas had a role in Australia and in the Asia Pacific.
Origin previously described the Beetaloo as one of the most promising shale gas resources anywhere in the world and was the largest player testing commercial viability of the basin's gas deposits up until this week.
Mr Riddle said it was very natural for big energy companies to divest non-core assets over time.
He would not be drawn on whether Origin was distancing itself from its association with sanctioned Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg.
Mr Riddle said Tamboran would be delivering a net zero gas project by 2025 which would create 6,300 jobs in the Territory.
He said details on how the company would achieve net zero emissions would be provided "at the appropriate time", and would include integrating renewables into the project and carbon capture and storage.
The Australia Institute research director Rod Campbell said it was "patently false" to claim the industry would create more than 6,000 jobs, a number outlined in a 2015 study commissioned by the Australian Petroleum and Production Exploration Association.
"Even if a large-scale industry is developed, the Fracking Inquiry's best-case scenario was 500 jobs in the NT, all of which would come from elsewhere in Australia," he said.
The deal is still subject to consent from the Northern Territory government.
Tamboran, which previously came under fire for failing to appear at a Senate inquiry into the Morrison government's controversial grants program, has now committed to that line of questioning, saying the no-show "was not intentional".
Opponents take heart
Beetaloo Basin Nurrdalinji Native Title Aboriginal Corporation chair Johnny Wilson said Origin's sale signalled their message of opposition was "finally getting through".
He is among a group of native title holders in the region who oppose fracking.
Mr Wilson said he hoped the sale was the beginning of more companies turning their back on gas exploration.
Editor's note 20/09/2022; This story has been amended to remove an incorrect reference to a court case.
