Budget 2013/14 Northern Territory Economy
Tabled paper 295
Tabled Papers for 12th Assembly 2012 - 2016; Tabled Papers; ParliamentNT
2013-05-14
Tabled by David Tollner
Made available by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory under Standing Order 240. Where copyright subsists with a third party it remains with the original owner and permission may be required to reuse the material.
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Tabled papers
Department of the Treasury and Finance
application/pdf
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https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00866
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/273751
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/426369
Mining and Manufacturing 129 Northern Territory Economy more than 3.4trillioncubicfeet of natural gas and 400millionbarrels of LPG and condensate. Gas from the BayuUndan field is transported via a subsea pipeline to Wickham Point near Darwin and used as feedstock in the manufacturing of LNG at the ConocoPhillips Darwin LNG plant. The Darwin LNG plant commenced production in early 2006 and has produced between 3.0milliontonnes and 3.5milliontonnes of LNGperannum, which is exported to Japan under longterm contracts. Longterm gas supplies for the Territorys electricity supply have been purchased by Power and Water Corporation (PWC) from Enis Blacktip field to supply up to 860petajoules of gas. Subject to due diligence, the Territory Government has indicated its support of releasing 300petajoules of this amount to PacificAluminium at Gove. As the Blacktip field is located in Western Australian waters, 100kilometres west of Wadeye in the Bonaparte Basin, gas production from the field is not attributed to the Territory. In 201213, the value of gas and liquids production (including condensate and LPG) is estimated to increase by 9.7percent from $2.1billion in 201112 to $2.4billion in 201213. Growth in gas and liquids reflects a step up in production following the scheduled maintenance shutdown at the Darwin LNG plant in Mayand June2012 as well as efficiency gains and upgrades made during the shutdown. The Ranger uranium mine has been in operation since1981 and is the worlds longest continually producing uranium mine. The mine is located within the boundaries of the World Heritage listed Kakadu National Park and accounted for 11percent of the Territorys energy production in 201112. Opencut mining at Ranger was ceased in late2012 due to the depletion of resources available to the opencut mining process. Despite the completion of opencut mining at Ranger, the value of uranium oxide production in the Territory is estimated to increase from $404million in 201112 to $488million in 201213 (up by 20.8percent) following high quality ore mined from the bottom of pit three in the first half of 201213 and from existing stockpiles in the second half of the year. Rehabilitation and backfilling of over 30milliontonnes of stockpiled material began in mid201213 with work expected to be completed in late2014. After receiving approvals for a feasibility study, ERA is undertaking a substantial exploration program at its underground Ranger 3 Deeps project. Exploration Expenditure The ABS reports on nominal mineral and petroleum exploration expenditure in the Territory and Australia. Only private sector activity is surveyed and data published covers all expenditure during the exploratory or evaluation stages in Australia, Australian waters and the JPDA. Expenditure that is reported by the ABS includes the cost of exploration, determination of recoverable reserves, engineering and economic feasibility studies, procurement of finance, gaining access to reserves, construction of pilot plants and all technical and administrative overheads directly associated with these functions. Cash bids for offshore petroleum exploration permits are also included. Uranium