September 2, 2026 • 8 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now, we know that it was celebrated as a major
moment for the Northern Territory with the official turning on
of the gas at the Beetaloosa Basin on Tuesday. The
government says that it's going to unlock billions of dollars
in economic value, as well as thousands of jobs. So
to find out more about what it means for the
company who turned the gas on, well, it is Tamboran
(00:20):
CEO Todd Abbott joining me in the studio. Good morning
to you, Todd.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
How are you, Katie? Yeah, really good.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Thank you so much for your time this morning. Now,
this is a big moment for the company and the
industry as a whole, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
It is a really big moment. And so we've had
a lot of celebration events and a lot of people
involved in it. It's kind of fun to come over
and stack hands and high five each other that we
made it to this point.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Now, tell me, the chief minister says that Betaloo gas
is now flowing into the network and into our network.
Is it really? You know, is it turning the lights
on for us right now?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
We actually, it was, yes, is the short answer. We
had a nice event and we had a lot of
people and I was able to announce at that event
that our 2H well is opened up and flowing into
the compression facility. So the Beetaloo gas is open. It
has happened. It's no longer a potential basin. It is
an active basin.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
And I know it has been a long road to
get here, hasn't it?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
It has been a very long road. There have been
a lot of people along the way. It's been 10
plus years in the making. And I've talked to founders.
I've talked to the people that have really kind of
continue to put in the work when the results were unclear.
And so now to be here at this point, right,
and to be able to say you've achieved first gas production,
it's really meaningful.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Does it get quite difficult, you know, as different governments
sort of, you know, go down different policy paths and
you wonder sometimes, I suppose, what they, you know, they
may or may not choose to do on.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
A federal stage as well.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Does it make it quite difficult for a business, a
company to sort of stay steadfast and go, all right,
I'm going to make sure that we do still do
business in the territory?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
It certainly takes conviction to bring a project like this on, right?
And we mentioned the timeframes, but the amount of work
behind that is probably It's hard to see from the outside,
but there's an army of contractors. We have a lot
of partners. We have a lot of stakeholders to bring
it to here. What I'll say about the investment climate
is these are very long-term projects. So if you think
about the Beetaloo, it's a very large resource, and maybe
(02:20):
put it in scale for your listeners. This could supply
Australia multiple times over for a century for gas. It
is that type of resource. So it spans government's It
spans political cycles. But to bring that long-term capital in,
you need a stable environment. Those investors need to understand, okay,
(02:40):
if I'm putting dollars into it, what does this look
like over the long term? So you're hitting on some
of the right things. Having a very clear investment climate
and having very clear regulations and rules are really important
for that to come in.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Todd, tell me, I assume that it takes some time
to move to full-scale production, or are we already there?
Is it something that's staged?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Oh, this is, I call first production a milestone. And
it's really important that we kind of pause and celebrate
it and recognize it. It is not the destination. And
there's a long journey between the two. So we start here.
We've got 40 terajoules a day that we'll ramp up
to and bring here to the Northern Territory. It's really
fitting that it all comes here first because of the
(03:22):
support we've had from the government here. We will also
look at expanding that facility. So we can double that
production by expanding our compression facility. But long term for
this basin to really come into its own and be
what it can be, it's going to take large format pipelines.
It needs to connect here to Darwin and the facilities here.
And it's got to connect down into the East Coast
(03:42):
gas market.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
So just on that pipeline discussion, because there's been a
bit of reporting on that this week. I know the
federal opposition has been speaking about it. What are the
next steps in terms of a pipeline to the East Coast?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
There are several. So no surprise, we spend a lot
of time with the pipeliners, with the LNG processors and
with the other operators. So all of those conversations are happening.
We're kind of starting to get into the specifics of
the route, the specifics of the sizing and how does
all that work. What we do agree on is specifically
for the East Coast pipeline, it's a long route and
it's going to take a while to construct that. But
(04:16):
we've got to get this gas down to the East Coast.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
And who funds it?
Speaker 2 (04:21):
There could be many. I don't think there's one person
or one company that funds that. I think you'll see
operators participate, probably processors participate, and there could even be
other equity investment that comes into it.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Todd, tell me, I know the topic of Australians not
benefiting from the sale or use of our own resources.
It's something that is always a hot topic. Can you
explain how you foresee Territorians benefiting from from this development?
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Sure. And I'll kind of draw a parallel to what
we saw in the United States, because it was the
same conversation in the U.S. where, you know, gas reserves
were coming down, oil reserves were coming down. And rightfully,
energy security is national security. So we want to make
sure that is there for the nation. As we unlock that,
(05:09):
as the shale revolution took off in the U.S., and
as we allowed export of oil specifically, What that did
was create an investment climate where the production absolutely exploded
in the United States and it brought prices down and
it created energy independence for the United States. You will
see the same thing here. The opportunity is to do
(05:29):
that here. The size of the Beetaloo is so large
that you can serve the domestic markets for generations and
still benefit from the royalties and the taxes and the
jobs that by selling that to your Asian trading partners.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
How does it compare to some of the locations that
you've worked in in America, in the States?
Speaker 2 (05:47):
This is the rock itself. It's world-class rock. My last
role was working the Marcella Shale in Pennsylvania in the
United States. It looks a lot like that, frankly, a
little bit better in a lot of qualities. Size-wise, this
is the largest, we'll say, non-associated gas field, which means
just a pure gas field. This is the largest gas
(06:10):
field undeveloped in the world outside of the Middle East
or Russia, just to give you a sense of the scale.
It's a world-class asset. So when someone says Australia has
a gas scarcity problem, that's not true. What we will
do is solve the infrastructure problem.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Tell me, because as you're talking, I know that we'll
have some listeners that are quite concerned about the potential
environmental impacts. They're going to be listening and they've maybe
watched something from overseas or they have read something and
they might be thinking, I do not want this for
the Northern Territory. I mean, what do you say to
those people listening this morning?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
I think the important thing to remember when you think
about a basin like this that takes off is if
you think about the net impact environmentally of a basin
like this, It really goes to the use of the
gas and what it's going to display. So a few examples.
The chief minister got up in one of our conversations
earlier this week and highlighted the emergency diesel storage at
(07:07):
the generation plant. So burning natural gas versus diesel is
going to reduce emissions. If you think about other places,
if we're moving this down into the East Coast, it
removes the requirement to extend coal plants, which is going
to reduce emissions. And even where the Beetaloo is replacing
other gas reserves, Interesting about, this is a little bit
of a technical detail, but there's only 3% CO2 in
(07:30):
situ in the reservoir, inherent in the reservoir, where most
gas fields are like 15% to 20%. So even when
you're displacing other gas, you're bringing down emissions. So the
facts are bringing beetaloo gas on reduces global emissions.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
If you have just joined us, well, in the studio
with us this morning, we have got Todd Abbott, who
is the CEO of Tamborin. Now, Todd, I do want
to ask you, we've spoken in the past to Betaloo
Energy in the last couple of months about their plans
around a hyperscale data center. Does Tamborin have downstream plans
to make use of the gas?
Speaker 2 (08:03):
We're an upstream company. Our job is to drill great
gas wells and put them into the market. And so
As the elected officials and the government work through how
to do data centers the right way, what is the
right way for Australia to do that, as those come
into the basin, if they come into the basin, we'll
sell them gas like any other customer.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Now tell me, I know that critics of fracking have
claimed that the industry is unproven and it's propped up
by taxpayer funds. What do you say to those comments?
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I think you can look at the history of fracking,
both in the US and abroad, and see that it's
been around for a long, long time. It was pioneered
long ago, and the history of it is incredibly safe
if you go look at the facts.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Well, Todd Abbott, we are going to have to leave
it there. Tambor and CEO, really appreciate your time this morning.
Thank you very much for joining us in the studio.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Katie, enjoyed it. Thank you.
Now, we know that it was celebrated as a major
moment for the Northern Territory with the official turning on
of the gas at the Beetaloosa Basin on Tuesday. The
government says that it's going to unlock billions of dollars
in economic value, as well as thousands of jobs. So
to find out more about what it means for the
company who turned the gas on, well, it is Tamboran
(00:20):
CEO Todd Abbott joining me in the studio. Good morning
to you, Todd.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
How are you, Katie? Yeah, really good.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Thank you so much for your time this morning. Now,
this is a big moment for the company and the
industry as a whole, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
It is a really big moment. And so we've had
a lot of celebration events and a lot of people
involved in it. It's kind of fun to come over
and stack hands and high five each other that we
made it to this point.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Now, tell me, the chief minister says that Betaloo gas
is now flowing into the network and into our network.
Is it really? You know, is it turning the lights
on for us right now?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
We actually, it was, yes, is the short answer. We
had a nice event and we had a lot of
people and I was able to announce at that event
that our 2H well is opened up and flowing into
the compression facility. So the Beetaloo gas is open. It
has happened. It's no longer a potential basin. It is
an active basin.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
And I know it has been a long road to
get here, hasn't it?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
It has been a very long road. There have been
a lot of people along the way. It's been 10
plus years in the making. And I've talked to founders.
I've talked to the people that have really kind of
continue to put in the work when the results were unclear.
And so now to be here at this point, right,
and to be able to say you've achieved first gas production,
it's really meaningful.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Does it get quite difficult, you know, as different governments
sort of, you know, go down different policy paths and
you wonder sometimes, I suppose, what they, you know, they
may or may not choose to do on.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
A federal stage as well.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Does it make it quite difficult for a business, a
company to sort of stay steadfast and go, all right,
I'm going to make sure that we do still do
business in the territory?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
It certainly takes conviction to bring a project like this on, right?
And we mentioned the timeframes, but the amount of work
behind that is probably It's hard to see from the outside,
but there's an army of contractors. We have a lot
of partners. We have a lot of stakeholders to bring
it to here. What I'll say about the investment climate
is these are very long-term projects. So if you think
about the Beetaloo, it's a very large resource, and maybe
(02:20):
put it in scale for your listeners. This could supply
Australia multiple times over for a century for gas. It
is that type of resource. So it spans government's It
spans political cycles. But to bring that long-term capital in,
you need a stable environment. Those investors need to understand, okay,
(02:40):
if I'm putting dollars into it, what does this look
like over the long term? So you're hitting on some
of the right things. Having a very clear investment climate
and having very clear regulations and rules are really important
for that to come in.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Todd, tell me, I assume that it takes some time
to move to full-scale production, or are we already there?
Is it something that's staged?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Oh, this is, I call first production a milestone. And
it's really important that we kind of pause and celebrate
it and recognize it. It is not the destination. And
there's a long journey between the two. So we start here.
We've got 40 terajoules a day that we'll ramp up
to and bring here to the Northern Territory. It's really
fitting that it all comes here first because of the
(03:22):
support we've had from the government here. We will also
look at expanding that facility. So we can double that
production by expanding our compression facility. But long term for
this basin to really come into its own and be
what it can be, it's going to take large format pipelines.
It needs to connect here to Darwin and the facilities here.
And it's got to connect down into the East Coast
(03:42):
gas market.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
So just on that pipeline discussion, because there's been a
bit of reporting on that this week. I know the
federal opposition has been speaking about it. What are the
next steps in terms of a pipeline to the East Coast?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
There are several. So no surprise, we spend a lot
of time with the pipeliners, with the LNG processors and
with the other operators. So all of those conversations are happening.
We're kind of starting to get into the specifics of
the route, the specifics of the sizing and how does
all that work. What we do agree on is specifically
for the East Coast pipeline, it's a long route and
it's going to take a while to construct that. But
(04:16):
we've got to get this gas down to the East Coast.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
And who funds it?
Speaker 2 (04:21):
There could be many. I don't think there's one person
or one company that funds that. I think you'll see
operators participate, probably processors participate, and there could even be
other equity investment that comes into it.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Todd, tell me, I know the topic of Australians not
benefiting from the sale or use of our own resources.
It's something that is always a hot topic. Can you
explain how you foresee Territorians benefiting from from this development?
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Sure. And I'll kind of draw a parallel to what
we saw in the United States, because it was the
same conversation in the U.S. where, you know, gas reserves
were coming down, oil reserves were coming down. And rightfully,
energy security is national security. So we want to make
sure that is there for the nation. As we unlock that,
(05:09):
as the shale revolution took off in the U.S., and
as we allowed export of oil specifically, What that did
was create an investment climate where the production absolutely exploded
in the United States and it brought prices down and
it created energy independence for the United States. You will
see the same thing here. The opportunity is to do
(05:29):
that here. The size of the Beetaloo is so large
that you can serve the domestic markets for generations and
still benefit from the royalties and the taxes and the
jobs that by selling that to your Asian trading partners.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
How does it compare to some of the locations that
you've worked in in America, in the States?
Speaker 2 (05:47):
This is the rock itself. It's world-class rock. My last
role was working the Marcella Shale in Pennsylvania in the
United States. It looks a lot like that, frankly, a
little bit better in a lot of qualities. Size-wise, this
is the largest, we'll say, non-associated gas field, which means
just a pure gas field. This is the largest gas
(06:10):
field undeveloped in the world outside of the Middle East
or Russia, just to give you a sense of the scale.
It's a world-class asset. So when someone says Australia has
a gas scarcity problem, that's not true. What we will
do is solve the infrastructure problem.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Tell me, because as you're talking, I know that we'll
have some listeners that are quite concerned about the potential
environmental impacts. They're going to be listening and they've maybe
watched something from overseas or they have read something and
they might be thinking, I do not want this for
the Northern Territory. I mean, what do you say to
those people listening this morning?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
I think the important thing to remember when you think
about a basin like this that takes off is if
you think about the net impact environmentally of a basin
like this, It really goes to the use of the
gas and what it's going to display. So a few examples.
The chief minister got up in one of our conversations
earlier this week and highlighted the emergency diesel storage at
(07:07):
the generation plant. So burning natural gas versus diesel is
going to reduce emissions. If you think about other places,
if we're moving this down into the East Coast, it
removes the requirement to extend coal plants, which is going
to reduce emissions. And even where the Beetaloo is replacing
other gas reserves, Interesting about, this is a little bit
of a technical detail, but there's only 3% CO2 in
(07:30):
situ in the reservoir, inherent in the reservoir, where most
gas fields are like 15% to 20%. So even when
you're displacing other gas, you're bringing down emissions. So the
facts are bringing beetaloo gas on reduces global emissions.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
If you have just joined us, well, in the studio
with us this morning, we have got Todd Abbott, who
is the CEO of Tamborin. Now, Todd, I do want
to ask you, we've spoken in the past to Betaloo
Energy in the last couple of months about their plans
around a hyperscale data center. Does Tamborin have downstream plans
to make use of the gas?
Speaker 2 (08:03):
We're an upstream company. Our job is to drill great
gas wells and put them into the market. And so
As the elected officials and the government work through how
to do data centers the right way, what is the
right way for Australia to do that, as those come
into the basin, if they come into the basin, we'll
sell them gas like any other customer.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Now tell me, I know that critics of fracking have
claimed that the industry is unproven and it's propped up
by taxpayer funds. What do you say to those comments?
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I think you can look at the history of fracking,
both in the US and abroad, and see that it's
been around for a long, long time. It was pioneered
long ago, and the history of it is incredibly safe
if you go look at the facts.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Well, Todd Abbott, we are going to have to leave
it there. Tambor and CEO, really appreciate your time this morning.
Thank you very much for joining us in the studio.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Katie, enjoyed it. Thank you.
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