Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Northern Territory government was hoping to introduce hydraulic fracturing (fracking) recommendations made in a 2015 independent inquiry into regulation.
Speaking on the sidelines of the eighteenth liquefied natural gas conference, in Perth, Northern Territory Deputy Chief Minister Peter Styles said that the Alan Hawke report into fracking was currently open for public comments, and would go before Parliament before the end of term.
The Hawke report, which was released in February last year, concluded there was no need for a moratorium on fracking because there was clear evidence the shale gas industry could be developed safely with proper regulation.
The report found that the environmental risks associated with fracking could be managed effectively, subject to the creation of a robust regulatory regime.
“The scientific community is of the view that if you have good regulatory processes in place, fracking is feasible,” Styles said.
“We want to make sure that we have the world’s best practices in place to ensure that we can continue to get shale gas as part of the economic development of the Northern Territory.”
It was estimated that the Northern Territory had about 200-trillion cubic feet of gas resources across eight onshore bases which cover nearly one-million square kilometres.