A US gas company with the biggest stake in the Beetaloo Basin has welcomed the approval of a full-scale fracking industry, promising "billions of dollars" in royalties.
For weeks, Tamboran Resources has been quarantining an enormous drill rig at Darwin Port while the Northern Territory government deliberated on its final decision on fracking in the Beetaloo Basin.
On Wednesday, the company's hopes came true.
"We're very pleased [with] the way the timing worked out," chief executive Joel Riddle told reporters on Friday.
"That was not planned."
Mr Riddle said Tamboran was committed to delivering 10 per cent of royalties from its Beetaloo gas production revenues to territory coffers.
"The quantum of royalties is in the billions of dollars that could flow into the Northern Territory government and the Northern Land Council," he said.
The total figure would depend on gas prices and demand, he said.
Locals voice concerns over groundwater
In a small town closer to the basin, not everyone was celebrating.
"I'm devastated," local Des Barritt said. "I'm really, really angry."
Mr Barritt runs the Little Roper stock camp in Mataranka, about 100 kilometres from the Beetaloo sub-basin.
His business relies upon tourists visiting natural thermal pools — such as Bitter Springs — which draws in groundwater from a huge interconnected aquifer.
"The water is irreplaceable," he said.
In one scenario outlined by the Pepper Inquiry's final report, about 2,500 to 5,000 megalitres of water could be needed per year for drilling and fracking wells in the Beetaloo Basin.
Mr Barritt said he didn't trust the Northern Territory government to properly monitor fracking water use.
"They're not transparent," he said. "Any risk to our water needs to be considered with a lot more rigour than what the Northern Territory government's doing at the moment."
Djingili elder and native title holder Samuel Sandy also expressed concern over the impact of a major gas industry on local groundwater.
"Water is very vital in the Northern Territory," Mr Sandy — the deputy chair of the Nurrdalinji Aboriginal Corporation — said.
"It's very sacred to some of the tribes."
Mr Riddle said Tamboran had recently met about 50 traditional owners in the regional town of Elliott.
He said all of them expressed "unanimous positivity around moving forward with the development".
"If anything, there was frustration of how long it's taken," he said.
Key water allocation plan not yet finalised
This week, the Northern Territory government's own independent fracking regulator disputed claims that the government had implemented all 135 Pepper Inquiry recommendations in full.
This was a key condition to which the government agreed before allowing fracking to go ahead.
University of Melbourne senior water law lecturer Erin O'Donnell also said that more recommendations remained outstanding.
These included promises of a federal water trigger, which would activate further oversight of the environmental impacts of fracking, as well as a water allocation plan to show how much water could be safely taken for industry.
"Water allocation plans do really important things in terms of setting up the sustainable management of water resources in the Northern Territory," Dr O'Donnell said.
"We simply don't have one in place for the Beetaloo Basin."
Last year, the Northern Territory government submitted a draft water allocation plan for the Georgina-Wiso basin, which drew criticism from a group of water experts around Australia.
It is expected to deliver a finalised water allocation plan for the Beetaloo Basin in coming weeks.
