Formentera Partners and Inpex have announced a joint venture (JV) that aims to expedite the development of natural gas resources in Australia’s onshore Beetaloo Basin, located in the Northern Territory.
This collaboration is set to combine Formentera’s expertise in shale technology with Inpex’s global capabilities in liquefied natural gas (LNG).
It aims to establish a domestic natural gas supply for Australia and facilitate LNG exports to international markets, particularly in Asia.
As part of the agreement, Inpex will initially acquire approximately 68,000 net acres from Formentera’s 1.9 million-net-acre holdings within the basin through a phased earn-in arrangement worth up to $208m. The deal includes structured off-ramp provisions.
Furthermore, Inpex holds an option to purchase an additional acreage of around 75,000 net acres, with the purchase price ranging from $266m to $411m contingent on when the option is exercised.
The majority of the transaction’s cost will be met through development capital by funding the drilling programme’s well expenses.
Daly Waters Energy (DWE), a fully owned subsidiary of Formentera, will manage the joint venture.
It will utilise Formentera’s experience in applying advanced US shale technologies, honed through extensive horizontal drilling in comparable geological settings.
Inpex managing director and Australia country chair Tetsu Murayama said: “We are delighted to participate in this exciting opportunity with Daly Waters to prove up the potential to develop natural gas from the Beetaloo Sub-basin for the Northern Territory in the near term.
“By developing low-carbon natural gas with Daly Waters Energy (DWE), Inpex will also continue to supply LNG to key trading partners such as Japan and Taiwan, and we are proud of playing our part.”
The collaboration of DWE and Inpex with other partners like Tamboran Resources is expected to enhance domestic production.
Under the new partnership, DWE and Inpex, alongside joint venture partner Tamboran Resources, will jointly advance domestic production. This will be underpinned by a 40 million cubic feet per day (mcf/d) supply agreement with the Northern Territory.
Moreover, efforts are underway to increase the region’s LNG export capacity, including plans by Inpex to add a third LNG train at Ichthys LNG in Darwin, leveraging growing production from Beetaloo.
Since partnering with Tamboran in 2022, Formentera has established one of the largest continuous onshore unconventional land holdings in the Beetaloo, spanning 1.9 million acres.
A multi-well appraisal programme has highlighted substantial resource potential, estimating multi-trillion cubic feet across key areas.
