During the 46th Parliament, the Senate referred to the Environment and Communications References Committee (the committee) an inquiry into oil and gas exploration and production in the Beetaloo Basin (the Beetaloo), for interim report by 3 August 2021 and final report by 29 March 2022.

Following extensions granted by the Senate, the committee presented several intermediate reports, including a substantive interim report on 24 August 2021.

The interim report focussed on the now closed Beetaloo Cooperative Drilling Program (BCD Program), which aimed to encourage and facilitate oil and gas exploration in the Beetaloo, and an associated funding instrument, the Industry Research and Development (Beetaloo Cooperative Drilling Program) Instrument 2021.

The report focuses on various matters raised in the interim report, the regulation and specific environmental impacts of the gas industry in the Beetaloo, and concerns expressed by First Nations communities and pastoralists. The following chapters:

• provide an update on certain matters raised in the interim report (Chapter 2);

• examine the role of the Australian Government, including with respect to national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Chapter 3);

• discuss environmental regulation in the Beetaloo, with specific attention to Territory-level GHG emissions from gas activities (Chapter 4); and

• highlight concerns from First Nations communities and pastoralists (Chapter 5).