AUSTIN, Texas, March 27 — Formentera Partners and INPEX announced a landmark strategic joint venture partnership that will accelerate development of vast natural gas resources from the onshore Beetaloo Basin in Australia’s Northern Territory. The collaboration brings together Formentera’s leading shale expertise and INPEX’s global LNG capabilities to establish a new domestic natural gas source for Australia and support future LNG exports to premium markets in Asia and around the world.
Partnership highlights:
- INPEX to acquire ~68,000 net acres across a core ~355,000-gross-acre block within Formentera’s 1.9 million-net-acre position in the basin through a staged earn-in for up to $208 million in consideration, which is subject to structured off-ramp provisions.
- INPEX has option to acquire ~75,000 additional net acres within the core block for $266 – $411 million in consideration, dependent on option execution timing.
- The transaction consideration will be primarily delivered as development capital by carrying the well costs of the drilling program.
Formentera’s wholly owned subsidiary, Daly Waters Energy (DWE), will operate the joint venture and bring Formentera’s significant expertise in the application of modern U.S. shale technologies, refined across millions of feet of horizontal drilling in similar geologic formations.
The combination of Daly Waters Energy’s Australian leadership and Formentera’s operational excellence has unlocked a basin long recognized for its potential yet stalled by technical, regulatory, and infrastructure challenges.
“Multiple operators exited the Beetaloo after early challenges,” said Bryan Sheffield, Managing Partner of Formentera. “We entered and applied our continuously improving expertise, advantages, and key relationships to solve what others couldn’t. I’m incredibly proud of the joint venture team and its work to prove the Beetaloo can support real, scalable natural gas development for domestic use and future export. This is a turning point for the basin, for Australia, and for the future of international shale development.”
INPEX Managing Director, Country Chair Australia, Tetsu Murayama added, “We are delighted to participate in this exciting opportunity with Daly Waters to prove up the potential to develop natural gas from the Beetaloo Sub-basin for the Northern Territory in the near term. By developing low-carbon natural gas with DWE, INPEX will also continue to supply LNG to key trading partners such as Japan and Taiwan, and we are proud of playing our part.”
