The CLP Government has said it will not release the cost of the Tamboran Resources gas deal struck with the Lawler Government in April notwithstanding its own calls in parliament for the details to be revealed.

Since becoming Energy Minister, Gerard Maley announced that the deal is commercial in confidence, but hasn’t explained why.

On April 23 the Lawler Government announced a nine-year deal with Tamboran Resources to supply 40 terajoules of Beetaloo Basin gas daily from the second half of 2026 to generate electricity the government said it needed because of a decline in ENI’s Blacktip production.

The Labor government said the deal would satisfy nearly two-thirds of the territory’s gas demand, but would not say how much it cost, whether it was a fixed price or subject to global price spikes or why the supply of gas was not put out to a competitive tender.

Then-chief minister Eva Lawler denied the government timed the announcement to help Tamboran’s initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in June.

An August report written by Springmount Advisory managing director Tom Quinn for Frack Free NT, which is part of the Lock the Gate Alliance, said the deal would play a foundational role in enabling exploitation of fracked gas from the Beetaloo with an equivalent of 14.6 petajoules per annum being sold to the government.

In late July the Lawler Government also signed a 10-year deal with Empire Energy to supply gas from the Beetaloo, with those costs also kept secret.

The NT News reported that before winning government the CLP promised to release details of the Tamboran deal ‘If it could”.

NT Energy Minister Gerard Maley told the media recently that the deal between the previous Labor government and Tamboran was commercial in confidence, and said developing the fracked gas industry in the Beetaloo Basin was an important part of rebuilding the Northern Territory economy.

However he was not quoted as explaining why he considered the deal was commercial in confidence.

During the first sitting of the Legislative Assembly following the deal in May, Essential Services Minister Kate Worden was talking about the contract when Mr Maley interjected “Show us the details”.

New Essential Services Minister Steve Edgington said in the Assembly that the details would be “in a back room somewhere”.

At the time the deal was announced, the ABC quoted University of Queensland privacy law expert Professor John Swinson who said releasing the cost of the deal would not jeopardise the NT’s relationship with industry. He pointed out that Canada published government contracts as a matter of routine.

“It gives the impression they’re paying too much, not interested in competition, that it’s jobs for the boys, rather than transparent, open government where the best price and the best service is the one that’s selected,” Professor Swinson was quoted as saying.

“In Australia if you ask for a similar contract, the government will say commercial in confidence, and not give it to you.”

Frack Free NT spokesman Peter Callender told the NT News the CLP’s “excuses” and “secret deals” were not good enough.

“We know that the cheapest form of energy is solar, so the only real winners from this deal are a Texan fracking company, Tamboran, and their overseas shareholders,” Mr Callender said.

Mr Quinn’s Better than Beetaloo – How the NT can deliver energy security this decade without fracking report said, based on the known price of gas, the deal was estimated to be worth $1.8 billion, and up to $3.6 billion if a 6.5 year extension was exercised, and said the gas would provide roughly three times more gas than the NT needed to generate electricity by 2030. The report said better value for money could have been achieved for the Territory.

The government has been using gas from the Blacktip field in the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf since 2009 under a 25-year agreement with Italian company ENI. Failing production led to the government buying gas from other companies to generate electricity.