The Economist: Australia's gas exporters (2)

A BOOM in coal-seam gas (CSG) has sparked environmental protests by an unlikely alliance of farmers and greens in New South Wales and Queensland, the populous states where most CSG drilling is happening. There is little chance of such disruptions in the Cooper Basin in South Australia, one of the country’s barren and unpopulated outback regions, where you are more likely to spot a wallaby than a NIMBY—those whose reflexive reaction is “not in my backyard”.

That is one reason why Beach Energy, an Adelaide-based company, is gambling on another big energy source: besides its large reserves of conventional gas and CSG, the basin also has vast potential supplies of gas from shale rocks and from “tight” sands, both of which can be exploited using hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

Earlier this year, Beach signed a $349m deal with Chevron to explore for shale gas across two blocks comprising 328,000 hectares (810,000 acres) in the basin’s Nappamerri Trough. Chevron is one of the main players in Australia’s LNG boom. Reg Nelson, Beach’s managing director, reckons Chevron’s decision to team up with his firm is a “vote of confidence” that shale has a bright future down under. MORE