Session 14. Oral Presentation for: Beetaloo or bust: the route to commercial success for an Australian Shale play
Anne Forbes A *A
Anne Forbes is a senior research analyst in Wood Mackenzie’s Australasia upstream research team. Since joining in early 2022, she has worked on oil and gas assets and the domestic market balance across Australia. Prior to Wood Mackenzie Anne spent 8 years at Chemostrat in a technical geological role in the upstream industry. She specialised in stratigraphic analysis and has worked across Australia’s principal producing basins. She has a Bachelors and Masters in Geology from the University of Cambridge, and a PhD in Volcanology from the Open University. |
Abstract
Presented on Wednesday 22 May: Session 14
There is a huge unconventional shale gas resource in the remote heart of the Northern Territory with the potential to trigger big new gas developments in Darwin, including export liquefied natural gas (LNG), and underpin the chronically undersupplied East Coast market. And yet despite this promise, the Beetaloo is not universally viewed as a viable commercial project. Nonetheless, the Beetaloo is one of the hottest topics in Australia’s upstream sector, and two of its key operators, Tamboran and Empire, are closing in on final investment decision (FID) for initial gas production. So why are many in the market still sceptical the play will work? To create a definitive answer, we investigate the key factors required to make the Beetaloo commercially viable. We will evaluate what a Beetaloo gas project could look like across a range of resource sizes, estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) from analogue production profiles, and well costs. The work aims to understand the key cost barriers and price hurdles that need to be broached for economic success. From here we can determine the full range of economic pitfalls and potential rewards that lie in wait for ambitious Beetaloo operators.
To access the Oral Presentation click the link on the right. To read the full paper click here
Keywords: Beetaloo Basin, capex, East Coast gas, EUR, McArthur Basin, Mesoproterozoic, Proterozoic, shale gas.
Anne Forbes is a senior research analyst in Wood Mackenzie’s Australasia upstream research team. Since joining in early 2022, she has worked on oil and gas assets and the domestic market balance across Australia. Prior to Wood Mackenzie Anne spent 8 years at Chemostrat in a technical geological role in the upstream industry. She specialised in stratigraphic analysis and has worked across Australia’s principal producing basins. She has a Bachelors and Masters in Geology from the University of Cambridge, and a PhD in Volcanology from the Open University. |
