Irish firm pushes for Australian fracking approval

By Geoff Percival

Shares in Irish-headquartered exploration company Falcon Oil and Gas jumped 17 % on the back of latest research showing the enhanced potential of its chief asset in Australia.

The development comes ahead of a make-or-break local government decision on the future of onshore drilling practices in the region.

Dublin-based Falcon owns 30% of the much-heralded onshore Beetaloo Basin shale gas field in Australia’s Northern Territory, where there has been a halt on the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing — or fracking — for more than two years.

Philip O’Quigley: Called the latest update on the Beetaloo Basin ‘encouraging’.

A final decision on the future of the moratorium will be made in March, but an independent draft final report, commissioned by local government, hinted at a lifting of the ban in December, when it said that risks associated with fracking in the area would be “manageable”.

Falcon referred to that report, at the time, as an “amber light” towards the resumption of work at the Beetaloo site.

A lifting of the moratorium would allow Falcon and its senior partner at Beetaloo, Origin Energy, to resume drilling and complete a further five-well programme at the massive field.

Origin has now boosted the hype around Beetaloo by detailing, at an energy conference in Sydney, further potential targets in the overall field and the prospect of drilling them in a more cost-effective manner.

Falcon boss Philip O’Quigley called the latest update on the site “encouraging”.