An Australian environmental organization known as Lock The Gate has criticized plans to search for hale gas in the Northern Territory. According to a report commissioned for Lock The Gate, the search for unconventional gas could raise the country’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to unacceptably high levels.
The report examines two different scenarios for the development of reserves in the MacArthur and Beetaloo sub-basins, which may hold up to 500 trillion cubic feet (14.2 trillion cubic metres) of shale gas. It concludes that shale gas extraction could push GHG emissions up by 20% in the low-production scenario and by 75% in the high-production scenario.
These projections are unrealistic and overblown, according to Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA), the country’s largest oil and gas industry group. Keld Knudsen, APPEA’s director for the Northern Territory, said on October 28 that Lock The Gate’s report relied on production estimates that were 10 times higher than those drawn up by oil and gas operators.
“If we were to export that much gas, we would need 50 LNG plants in Darwin,” Keld was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.s