ASX: BTL - Beetaloo Energy
- Matt Birney
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Beetaloo Energy: Could this Aussie onshore basin have 200 years of gas in it?
Beetaloo Energy Managing Director Alex Underwood on 3AW, 2GB, 4BC & 6PR Bulls N' Bears Report
Listen to ASX-listed Beetaloo Energy Managing Director Alex Underwood talk to Matt Birney on the Bulls N’ Bears Report about Beetaloo’s ambition to be the first to produce commercial gas from a broader basin that could meet Australia’s energy needs for centuries!
TO LISTEN TO THE BEETALOO ENERGY AUDIO INTERVIEW - CLICK BELOW
Beetaloo Energy holds 28.9 million acres of highly prospective exploration tenements in the McArthur Basin and Beetaloo Sub-basins in Australia’s Northern Territory. Exploration since 2010 highlights enormous hydrocarbon potential in the Eastern depositional trough, where the Company holds around 80%. Last December, it reached Carpentaria Pilot FID, with C-5H delivering the basin's second-highest 30-day average flow rate. There's momentum building—and a race—to be first with commercial gas to market.
RADIO INTERVIEW - TRANSCRIPT
Matt Birney - Welcome to Bulls N' Bears, brought to you today by Northern Territory onshore gas developer, Beetaloo Energy
Matt Birney - ASX code: BTL.
Matt Birney - I'm Matt Birney , and I'm joined now by the Managing Director of Beetaloo Energy, Alex Underwood.
Matt Birney - Hi, Alex.
Alex Underwood - G'day, Matt.
Matt Birney - Okay, well, there's a multi-billion dollar shot in the arm coming for Australia from the Northern Territory's massive onshore Beetaloo gas subbasin. And ASX-listed Beetaloo Energy is positioning itself right in the middle of it. The Northern Territory government says the Beetaloo Basin holds enough gas to meet Australia's energy needs for 200 years and will provide a $17 billion economic hit just in the next two decades. Notably, Beetaloo Energy says it will produce first ever commercial gas there this year.
Matt Birney - All right, Alex. So by any measure this is a big gas basin right? How do you know it's going to flow commercially though, that's the big punt right?
Alex Underwood - So with our most recent well we've achieved a peak rate of 11 terajoules a day, the second highest average flow rate in the basin to date with more flow testing to come.
Matt Birney - But Beetaloo Energy has done a deal as I understand it to sell gas to the Northern Territory government no less from a pilot plant. What stage is that pilot plant at and when do you reckon you're going to sell first commercial gas out of there?
Alex Underwood - The civil construction is complete, the foundations are going down now and in April we'll be sending the gas plant from Queensland up to the basin and we expect to be selling gas by Q4 of this year.
Matt Birney - How many wells do you need to do that Northern Territory government deal and how many have you got in place now?
Alex Underwood - So we'll be selling gas from our existing Carpentaria 2H, 3H and 5H wells. And to get to the full volume of the contract there's probably a couple more wells that we drill in the years ahead.
Matt Birney - Have you done any modeling on how much gas each well can produce in that area?
Alex Underwood - Yeah, we've got independent assessments that show we'll get between eight and 10 petajoules of gas per well.
Matt Birney - Per what? Per year, per day or?
Alex Underwood - That's over the life of a well.
Matt Birney - Okay. And what does a petajoule of gas sell for in the market typically?
Alex Underwood - So if you use 10 bucks as your gas price, that's about $10 million per petajoule of gas.
Matt Birney - All right. Now, I know there's something for gold rush going on in the Beetaloo right now. What are the chances of Beetaloo Energy being the first ever company to produce commercial gas from it? Because you've got a few competitors, right?
Alex Underwood - Well, it's not a race to first gas, Matt, but we've got two projects, ours and another one that we expect to move into production this year.
Matt Birney - Now, the biblical scale ultimate play here is to sell gas into the eastern states, possibly even for decades. What big ticket infrastructure items need to be in place before you can do that?
Alex Underwood - Well, there is already a pipeline that connects the Northern Territory into Australia's east coast, but APA Group have announced they're planning to build a much bigger pipeline which should be installed in the next few years.
Matt Birney - Alex Underwood from Beetaloo Energy.
Matt Birney - Thanks for joining me on Bulls N' Bears and remember we're only here to give you information, not advice, which you should of course seek independently.
Matt Birney - I'm Matt Birney and this is Bulls N' Bears.
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