West Texas built its prosperity on the Permian Basin through sustained investment in roads, workforce capacity and suppliers equipped to service the industry.
Before leaving for Texas, I asked whether the Northern Territory could become Australia’s next economic engine. A week, three cities and one Texas road trip later, I have a clearer answer. The resource is not the constraint. The constraint is everything that has to be built around it.
From 20 to 26 September, I joined the US Shale Gas NT Business Delegation through Houston, Corpus Christi and Midland. The delegation was led by the Northern Territory Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in partnership with ICN NT, the Northern Territory Government, Energy Club NT and Australian Energy Producers. I returned with a business adviser’s perspective on the infrastructure, workforce and commercial capacity a shale economy requires, and the implications for Territory businesses and their financiers.
What we saw
The program was thoughtfully designed to follow a molecule of gas from the boardroom to the wellhead and back out to market.
- In Houston, -the boardroom layer- we visited Helmerich & Payne’s Galena Park facility, Baker Hughes’ Woodlands Technology Center and Halliburton. These visits showed us where capital is allocated, technology is developed and supply chains are designed.
- At the Port of Corpus Christi, -the expert layer-we saw the export infrastructure that has made the city one of the largest energy export gateways in the US, drawing on Permian production.
- The Midland program -the field layer- included an H&P rig tour, a live frac site, SLB’s electric submersible pump facility, a cement bulk plant, a frac sand mine visit with SWM and Freedom Proppants, and Ensign’s field base.
The Midland days were the most informative. Our visits concentrated on logistics, maintenance, materials handling, trucking, accommodation, catering and repair, with drilling forming a small part of the program. I saw substantial scope for local business ownership across the shale industry’s service economy.
I was struck by the confidence the program gave me in the value of accumulated operating experience. The industries we saw in Texas have been operating for generations. Their practices reflect mistakes, poor decisions and improvements made over that time, often through difficult experience. The Territory and Australia can draw on that knowledge as we develop our own industry.
Development here will be governed by Australian regulatory and operating standards. The US operators and service companies we met repeatedly described those standards as the highest in the world. Hearing that assessment from people working in the world’s largest shale industry reinforced my confidence in the Territory’s capacity to understand and manage onshore gas risks within an accountable regulatory framework.
Lesson one: shale development requires substantial logistics capacity
A single shale well consumes thousands of tonnes of sand, water, cement and steel, and almost all of it moves by road. In the Permian, traffic between frac sites, proppant mines, bulk plants and field bases is constant, placing sustained demands on road capacity.
The Territory starts with a much less developed infrastructure base. The Beetaloo sits about 500 kilometres south-east of Darwin, roughly 100 kilometres south of Katherine and 250 kilometres north of Tennant Creek. It is serviced by the Stuart and Carpentaria Highways and a network of unsealed roads established for pastoral use. Continuous heavy haulage will place greater demands on that network, compounded by wet-season closures that can last for weeks. Texas operators do not face that particular cost.
Infrastructure planning must establish the capacity needed before production scales.
- The Beetaloo access network needs to be sealed, widened and flood-proofed ahead of production. Early road investment is a prerequisite for the industry’s development.
- Corpus Christi demonstrates the value of planning common-user infrastructure as shared capacity. Darwin Port, Middle Arm and the rail corridor need a coordinated approach to water, power, laydown areas, bulk storage and pipeline access serving multiple operators.
- Regional storage and processing of sand, cement and chemicals would reduce dependence on loads freighted 1,000 kilometres. The bulk plants we saw in Midland offer a practical model for Territory business ownership.
Territory businesses have shown considerable resilience in managing distance and isolation. Shale development at scale will require additional infrastructure capacity, planned and delivered before activity creates pressure on existing networks.
The Stuart Highway is the clearest example. It is the Territory’s freight spine, linking Darwin Port to the Beetaloo and on to Alice Springs and the South Australian border, yet most of it is a two-lane, single carriageway road. Add sand trucks, rig moves, fuel tankers and a growing workforce to existing road trains and tourist traffic, and the road becomes both a safety risk and a bottleneck. In March 2025, the Commonwealth committed $200 million towards progressively duplicating priority sections between Darwin and Katherine, with construction expected to begin in mid-2026, alongside a further $58.3 million to upgrade the Carpentaria Highway through the Beetaloo. That start date has now passed, and works are yet to begin. The commitment is welcome, but money announced is not road built, and duplicating a few priority sections is not enough. The Territory needs a duplicated, dual carriageway Stuart Highway for its full length, border to border, planned and funded as one nation-building project rather than piece by piece.
Rail investment is also necessary to support the industry’s freight task. The Adelaide to Darwin railway already runs through the heart of the Territory, past the Beetaloo. Access to the single main line currently favours businesses located beside it. Rail operators and government need to build spur lines into the basin, supply hubs and key regional centres so that sand, cement, steel and equipment can move by rail. Shifting freight to rail would reduce road wear and heavy-vehicle traffic alongside family cars.
Government is responsible for infrastructure sequencing. The financial returns accrue almost entirely to the private sector, giving businesses a strong reason to advocate for timely, coordinated investment.
Lesson two: the binding constraint is people
Operators consistently described labour availability as a constraint on expansion, despite access to capital and rigs. Midland’s boom brought chronic labour shortages, housing costs that priced out teachers and nurses, and wage inflation that weakened businesses with no connection to oil and gas.
The Territory begins with a smaller population and a tighter labour market. If Beetaloo development reaches the forecast scale, workforce planning will need to invest in local training, interstate recruitment and skilled migration.
- Industry needs to co-design training courses and employ graduates. Charles Darwin University and NT registered training organisations require direct relationships with operators, with Aboriginal employment pathways in the Barkly and Big Rivers regions established from the outset.
- Workers relocating to Katherine, Tennant Creek or Daly Waters need access to housing. Regional housing supply should be planned and funded as economic infrastructure that supports workforce growth.
- Workforce policy should encourage workers to settle in the Territory. Before we left, ICNNT’s Daniel McCormick emphasised that wages retained and spent locally strengthen lasting capability. Fly-in, fly-out arrangements limit the circulation of that income within the Territory.
The housing question is already being answered by private capital. This week, Dunmarra Development Land published plans for Dunmarra, a permanent 600-hectare petroleum services precinct and workforce village on the Stuart Highway between Elliott and Daly Waters, about 600 kilometres south of Darwin. Built in stages matched to contracted Beetaloo activity, it proposes 2,760 units at full build-out, 70 serviced lots for contractors, an airstrip for regional jets from Darwin and Alice Springs, and a town centre with a supermarket, clinic and sporting facilities open to the public.
The Dunmarra proposal addresses the kind of advance infrastructure investment Midland lacked in its early years. Its planned permanent facilities could support communities already in the region and continue serving them beyond individual drilling campaigns. If the development proceeds, local builders, caterers, cleaners, maintenance contractors and suppliers could secure contracts during construction and operation, including before the first gas well is tied in.
Lesson three: gas development has economy-wide effects
In Midland, gas expenditure reaches across the local economy. Revenue generated at the wellhead passes through almost every business in town within a few transactions, extending the industry’s economic influence well beyond direct operators and contractors.
| Part of the NT economy | Where the gas dollar lands |
| Civil construction and earthmoving | Roads, pads, camps, pipelines, water storage |
| Transport and logistics | Sand, cement, water, fuel and equipment haulage; port handling |
| Trades and fabrication | Welding, electrical, mechanical repair, pump and engine servicing |
| Pastoral | Land access agreements, water, road maintenance, diversified income |
| Aboriginal enterprises and land councils | Land use agreements, contracting, employment, royalties |
| Hospitality and tourism | Accommodation, catering, camp services, charter flights |
| Property | Worker and family housing, commercial and industrial land |
| Retail and services | Fuel, food, vehicles, PPE, workwear |
| Professional services | Accounting, legal, engineering, environmental, HR, insurance, finance |
| Health and education | Clinics, schools and training providers for a larger population |
What Territory businesses should do now
The Texas suppliers that secured contracts had prepared before demand reached them. Territory SMEs can use the next 12 months to strengthen their procurement readiness.
- Operators and tier-one contractors seek a company counterparty with sound governance and clear ownership. Sole traders and family trusts that conduct the trading business directly may face difficulties in prequalification. Review the structure ahead of tendering and obtain advice on the tax and stamp duty implications before moving assets.
- Larger contracts can extend payment cycles and increase payroll commitments before the first invoice is paid. Model the working capital requirement, arrange finance facilities early and understand your rights when payments run late. Retain sufficient funding in the business to support growth and assess the effect of owners’ drawings on liquidity.
- Plan purchases of trucks, plant and equipment around contract certainty and cash flow. Tax deadlines should form part of that assessment without determining the investment timetable.
- Allow for the full cost of remote employment in every tender. Housing, travel, allowances, fringe benefits and payroll tax can rise as a business expands into regional operations. Assess the available concessions alongside those costs.
- Maintain financial statements, safety systems, insurances and Indigenous participation plans that can withstand prequalification scrutiny. Accurate, timely reporting strengthens a business’s procurement position.
Interstate and international businesses entering the Territory need suitable entities, registrations and banking arrangements from the outset. Relationships with traditional owners and land councils should be established early and honestly.
The Territory’s next steps
I returned from Texas convinced that execution will determine whether the Territory can realise a comparable economic opportunity. The gas resource is there, first Beetaloo gas is in the grid, and the global operators we met are aware of the Territory’s potential.
Government and the private sector need to invest ahead of demand in the Territory’s roads, housing, workforce and local commercial capability. Our exposure to the Texas industry gives us a valuable basis for planning that investment. The next five years will show how effectively we apply what we have learned.
Get in touch
If you are a Territory business preparing to become gas-ready, or an interstate or international business looking to establish in the NT, contact the Moore Australia Darwin team.
