An environment advocates group has launched a legal challenge in the NT Supreme Court against the NT Government’s approval of Tamboran Resources’ application to drill and frack in the Beetaloo basin, alleging Environment Minister Lauren Moss failed to lawfully assess the environmental plan by not identifying and considering all the risks.

The legal challenge came after the government approved Tamboran to drill and frack 12 exploratory wells in the basin, 600 km south of Darwin.

The group, the Central Australian Frack Free Alliance, said the minister failed to take into account any negative climate change effects, and said the approval would see the proliferation of fracking wells being drilled in the Territory, which they allege would have an even bigger negative impact on climate change.

“Tamboran’s project would help facilitate the drilling of vast new gas fields across the heart of the Territory. This would have a catastrophic impact on runaway climate change and affect the lives of everyone who resides here in the territory,” CAFFA spokesperson Hannah Ekin said.

CAFFA is being represented by the Environmental Defenders Office and its argument centres around the 2016 reforms of the Territory’s petroleum regulations, which provide for an in-depth assessment of the risks that come with gas fracking, EDO chief executive David Morris said.

Mr Morris said the Territory Government had a terrible track record of failing to regulate highly polluting industries.

“In this instance, we’re arguing the minister failed to lawfully assess Tamboran’s environmental plan by not identifying and considering all the risks. The law places the responsibility on the minister to ensure all risks are identified and considered, we say she failed in that task,” Mr Morris said.

Tamboran chief executive Joel Riddle told the media in September last year the company hoped to begin pumping gas from Beetaloo in 2025.

In response to questions about carbon emissions and potential water quality issues he said: “This is where our expertise comes into place. Thousands of wells have been drilled by our team, and those are the kinds of skill sets you need to protect your safety.”

Mr Riddle said the Beetaloo’s “low carbon” gas could be offset, and the drilling rigs would be electric powered and could be hooked up to renewables and batteries. He said the new generation drilling rigs could drill 3,000 to 4,000 metres horizontally into the shale “with more efficiency and less impact on the land”.

Australia Institute’s climate and energy program director Richie Merzian said developing unconventional gas leads to higher carbon emitting than conventional gas development.

“Gas is a high-emitting fuel that exacerbates climate change and no amount of greenwashing will change that,” Mr Merzian said.

An NT Government spokesperson told The Guardian the government could not comment while the case was underway.

Late last year, Tamboran was questioned by Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who is chair of an environment committee investigating oil and gas drilling in the Beetaloo basin, over the public funding received by its subsidiary Sweetpea Petroleum for exploratory drilling.

Senator Hanson-Young requested the company consider paying back the money it received from the government after it was revealed that its subsidiary company was able to offset a quarter of the drilling costs for one of its wells through a $7.5 million grant from the previous government.

The company originally pursued three grants of $7.5 million for three separate wells but got only one grant because of legal challenges which delayed the exploratory drilling of two wells.

Mr Riddle said the company has only received $4.5 million of the funding as a rebate for its drilling. He said the full $7.5 million would cover around 25 per cent of the company’s drilling expenses, an amount that would make a substantial difference.

“Public money should not be propping up polluting projects that can’t stand on their own two feet. The government should put a stop to these subsidies in the budget and Tamboran should pay back the money it’s already taken,” Senator Hanson-Young said.

According to data published by the Australian Electoral Commission early this month, Tamboran donated $200,000 to the federal Liberals, Nationals, and Labor parties in the year leading up to the last election, with oil and gas lobbyists APPEA donating $113,970.

A total of $872 million has been earmarked by the Federal Government for the Beetaloo Basin project, with the Federal Government contributing $660 million and the Territory Government allocating $212 million.