Two pipeline proposals seek to move Beetaloo Basin gas to Australia's east coast

Gas from the Beetaloo Basin flowed into the Northern Territory power grid for the first time earlier this week. At the ceremony marking that step, Northern Territory Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said the resource could provide more gas than Australia would know what to do with. Her statement was a government assessment of the basin's potential; the initial flow confirms production into the territory's grid but does not establish future east-coast volumes.

Jemena has announced plans for a 400-kilometer connection from the Beetaloo Basin to the Northern Gas Pipeline. The existing NGP runs from Tennant Creek to Mount Isa and is the only pipeline currently linking Northern Territory gas resources to eastern markets. Jemena's announcement describes a proposed connection intended to use that route; it does not mean the new line has been permitted, constructed or placed in operation.

APA Group has lodged a separate proposal for a 1,500-kilometer pipeline, and environmental assessment of the plan has begun. The proposed line would run directly from the Beetaloo area, about 500 kilometers southeast of Darwin, to southwest Queensland. The start of environmental review marks a procedural step for the project, while the pipeline itself remains a proposal that is not yet carrying gas to Queensland.

Jemena managing director David Gillespie did not provide an estimated cost for his company's proposal. As a comparison, he said the 622-kilometer Northern Gas Pipeline cost $700 million to build before it opened in 2018. The historic figure applies to the existing NGP and should not be treated as the price of Jemena's proposed Beetaloo connection, for which Gillespie supplied no cost estimate.

Gillespie said Jemena intends to submit an application for a pipeline permit to the Northern Territory government before the end of the year. That timetable concerns a future application, not an approval already received. The statement sets out the company's next planned regulatory step but does not establish when officials will decide on it, whether permission will be granted, or when construction could begin if the project advances.

APA's proposed North to East Australia Pipeline still requires environmental approval from three levels of government: Queensland, the Northern Territory and the federal government. Those outstanding approvals leave the proposal's regulatory path unfinished. The requirement distinguishes a project awaiting decisions from infrastructure that already has construction authorization and places each of the three governments within the proposal's environmental-approval process.