Top End Energy wins NT govt approval to snap up Hancock-owned Beetaloo acreage near Tamboran

Top End Energy (ASX:TEE) has announced its receipt of approval from the Northern Territory (NT) government to snatch up permits in the Beetaloo Basin from Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting.

All things in order, the allowance will see TEE move practically next door to Tamboran Resources (ASX:TBN). The latter recently listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to tap US markets for funding to develop the play.

The NT government is expecting the Beetaloo Basin to be a big revenue maker for its own coffers once production is fully underway, given it’s one of the largest untapped hydrocarbon basins in Australia.

And, as with all things Texas of the South (Australia,) it’s massive – possibly containing hundreds of trillions of cubic feet of gas.

Now that the NT government has approved the sale and purchase agreement (SPA) between Top End and Hancock, the former is an inch closer to potentially leveraging that gas basin’s development.

Of course, one is left to wonder by Rinehart wants to get rid of the acreage.

“The parties will now move forward to completion of the Transaction once deeds of assignment and assumption for key existing agreements have been executed,” Top End wrote on Tuesday.

TEE last traded at 11.5cps.