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Speaker 1: Now. Earlier this week, the Northern Territory government released the

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Speaker 1: Strategic Regional Environmental and Baseline Assessment. It's known as the

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Speaker 1: SHRIBA for the Beaterloo sub Basin, which is one of

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Speaker 1: the key recommendations from the Scientific Inquiry into Fracturing in

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory or fracking as we know it now.

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Speaker 1: The STREBER accounts for thirty five of the inquiri's recommendations

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Speaker 1: and aims to provide information well so that the appropriate

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Speaker 1: decisions can be made about the development of natural gas

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Speaker 1: extraction in the Beaterloo region, including the assessment of water

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Speaker 1: biodiversity resources to inform land use planning, and the collection

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Speaker 1: of baseline data to provide a reference for ongoing monitoring now.

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Speaker 1: The government says that the SHREBER puts more protections in

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Speaker 1: place for groundwater than ever before, not just in the

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Speaker 1: Beaterloo region, but right across the entire Northern Territory. So

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Speaker 1: where are things at when it comes to the be

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Speaker 1: Toloo Well, joining me in the studio right now is

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Speaker 1: High Energy CEO Alex Underwood. Good morning to you, Alex.

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Speaker 2: Good o Katie. Great to meet you and good to

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Speaker 2: be here in beautiful sunny Darlin.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, good to have you in the studio. Thank you

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Speaker 1: so much for your time now, Alex. Obviously the government

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Speaker 1: made this announcement earlier in the week. Does it provide

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Speaker 1: more or less certainty when it comes to the Beadlow?

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Speaker 2: In our opinion, this is a really key development in

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Speaker 2: terms of rounding off one hundred and thirty five recommendations

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Speaker 2: of the Pepper inquiry. You know, there's been a massive

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Speaker 2: piece of work done by government over the last five

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Speaker 2: years to implement all of those recommendations, and this gives

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Speaker 2: effect to thirty five of those recommendations.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 2: The final step to move into production licenses would be

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Speaker 2: the final sign off of the government, and we understand

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Speaker 2: from comments by Minister Moss yesterday that that'll be potentially

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Speaker 2: happening in the next few weeks. In terms of the

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Speaker 2: impact of the Cerebra on industry, first of all, I

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Speaker 2: should say we haven't had a chance to read it yet.

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Speaker 2: It's hundreds of pages of work and it's only just

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Speaker 2: come through. I suspect there'll be a bit of weekend

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Speaker 2: reading for us. But what it really does that's quite

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Speaker 2: important for us is it gives us a very detailed

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Speaker 2: baseline against which we can now look to build our

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Speaker 2: facilities and minimize our environmental impacts as we do.

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Speaker 1: So there had sort of been some questions asked about

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Speaker 1: whether you know, whether it was going to become too

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Speaker 1: difficult to do business in the Northern Territory. How is

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Speaker 1: Empire feeling at this point.

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Speaker 2: Well, we're a small company, we're not a multinational, but

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Speaker 2: I think if you look at our track record over

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Speaker 2: the last few years, you know, I would say we've

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Speaker 2: disproven that. So we've been active in the in the

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory for over a decade now, working very closely

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Speaker 2: with TOOS throughout that period, but particularly in the early

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Speaker 2: years to get their full informed prior consent, and that

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Speaker 2: work continues. And over the last few years since I

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Speaker 2: joined the company in twenty eighteen, we've been one of

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Speaker 2: the most active companies in the basin. So we've carried

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Speaker 2: out seismic surveys, we've drilled four wells now the most

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Speaker 2: recent one was the longest horizontal well drilled in Australian history.

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Speaker 2: And also we've carried out three fracture stimulations across of

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Speaker 2: those four wells so far, and we've done so safely

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Speaker 2: and with some really encouraging results. So I think, you know,

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Speaker 2: we and others have proven that we can operate under

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Speaker 2: this regulatory framework.

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Speaker 1: Alex sir Asta, I know there'll be people listening this

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Speaker 1: morning who just really don't want fracking to go ahead

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Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory. But I guess the situation in

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Speaker 1: Australia right now or the argument is that while we

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Speaker 1: may all want to go to clean green energy, we've

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Speaker 1: actually got a transition to get there.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely. So first of all, I absolutely respect the views

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Speaker 2: of people who are concerned about fracking, and we have

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Speaker 2: a great burden of responsibility as a company and as

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Speaker 2: an industry to consult with, you know, not only the

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Speaker 2: directly affected stakeholders of our activities, but the broader community.

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Speaker 2: And you know we've been doing that for a number

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Speaker 2: of years and we will continue to going forward. But yeah,

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Speaker 2: certainly this transition towards net zero is going to be

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Speaker 2: a massive undertaking. And just yesterday a big report by

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Speaker 2: a group called net zero Australia, so some world renowned

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Speaker 2: universities came up with some numbers around what the transition

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Speaker 2: is going to look like for Australia, and we're talking

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Speaker 2: between seven and nine trillion dollars of investment between now

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Speaker 2: and twenty fifty, a trebling of the capacity of the

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Speaker 2: national electricity market. And even in that scenario, there's going

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Speaker 2: to be a require a doubling of gas fire generation

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Speaker 2: to provide peaking support. So gas will continue to play

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Speaker 2: a very important role in the energy mix going forward.

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Speaker 2: And also it's not just used for electricity, it's also

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Speaker 2: an important feedstock for everything we rely on in our

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Speaker 2: modern lives now.

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Speaker 1: Yesterday, Walsh reported that a Senate inquiry into fracking in

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Speaker 1: the be Toloo Basin is calling for further investigation into

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Speaker 1: the Middle Arm precinct, now, noting that obviously Empire Energy

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Speaker 1: isn't part of the Middle Arm development as I understand. However,

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Speaker 1: it Wash reported that a petrochemical plant would likely source

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Speaker 1: feedstock from the Beaterloo basin. So will there be any

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Speaker 1: impact to Empires plans with that potential inquiry or with

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Speaker 1: that inquiry?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So we have a very close working knowledge of

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Speaker 2: that inquiry. It's been ongoing for a couple of years now,

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Speaker 2: and when the inquiry opened in twenty twenty one, we

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Speaker 2: made the proactive decision to actually actively participate in that inquiry.

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Speaker 2: We were the first of all of the gas companies

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Speaker 2: to make submissions to that inquiry and an appear before

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Speaker 2: the inquiry back in twenty twenty one, yep. And we

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Speaker 2: thought that was important because we think we have a

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Speaker 2: good story to tell around the work we've been doing

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Speaker 2: over the years and the approach we take to working

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Speaker 2: with communities and to protect the environment. You know, it

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Speaker 2: was fundamentally a pretty politically motivated inquiry set up by

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Speaker 2: the Greens Party, and you know, while while it doesn't

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Speaker 2: have any direct legal effect on government policy and therefore

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Speaker 2: we're not paying particular notice of it, one thing that

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Speaker 2: we did focus on during that inquiry was listening to

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Speaker 2: the submissions of lots of different colder groups and really

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Speaker 2: understanding what their concerns are. And you know what, you know,

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Speaker 2: and those who are in support.

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Speaker 1: As well, now talk us through you know what or

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Speaker 1: where are those exploration if it's at so far in

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Speaker 1: the Beaterloo basin.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, So there's been a number of wells drilled

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Speaker 2: across the basin over the years in terms of our activities,

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Speaker 2: so we are on both the eastern and western sides

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Speaker 2: of the basin, so where most of our activity has

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Speaker 2: been so far is about one hundred k's west of Borolula,

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Speaker 2: but then also we own properties across the Sturt Plateau

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Speaker 2: on the other side of the basin. Over the last

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Speaker 2: few years, as I mentioned, we've drilled for wells and

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Speaker 2: that expiration activity has really been focused on assessing whether

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Speaker 2: or not we can economically extract gas from these resources.

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Speaker 2: The flow testing is ongoing and we've been very encouraged

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Speaker 2: by those results. And so now as a company, we're

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Speaker 2: moving into a phase of planning to move into production,

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Speaker 2: initially in a fairly modest utilizing existing pipelines, and they're

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Speaker 2: looking to build from there.

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Speaker 1: So do you think it's going to be economically viable

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Speaker 1: for you guys to be able to you know, to

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Speaker 1: do business in the be Toloo.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so it is relatively early days, and that flow

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Speaker 2: testing is ongoing, but the results that we're seeing today

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Speaker 2: are very encouraging. We foresee, based on the results we're

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Speaker 2: getting that you know, the development costs of these activities

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Speaker 2: is likely to be two to three dollars a gigagel,

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Speaker 2: so so well below current prices, and so that gives

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Speaker 2: us a good degree of optimism that you know, we

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Speaker 2: can economically develop this asset.

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Speaker 1: So from your perspective, you know, depending on on I

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Speaker 1: guess you know, the different the different measures that the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory government has in place, and even on a

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Speaker 1: federal scale, Empire is still prepared and is still keen

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Speaker 1: to fracken the be Toloo.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: So you know, we are bound by one of the

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Speaker 2: strictest regulatory regimes in the world, and you know, we

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Speaker 2: do really appreciate the significant amount of work that's gone

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Speaker 2: on across government here in the NT to implement those

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Speaker 2: Pepper recommendations. We keenly await the final outcome of the

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Speaker 2: sign off of the Pepper Inquiry in the coming weeks

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Speaker 2: and that'll really give us the confidence and our investors

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Speaker 2: the confidence to then move forward into the next phase.

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Speaker 1: Well, Alex Underwood, the CEO of Empire Energy, appreciate your

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Speaker 1: time this morning. Thank you very much for coming into

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Speaker 1: the studio and having a chat with us.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Katie, really appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: No worries