The Beetaloo Basin is about 500km southeast of Darwin, and according to the Department of Industry, Science and Resources, it “has the potential to rival the world’s biggest and best gas resources.” So Origin Energy’s decision to sell out of its joint venture gas projectdidn’t go unnoticed yesterday… The Aussie energy company’s boss Frank Calabria says it will “enable greater flexibility to allocate capital towards our strategic priorities to grow cleaner energy and customer solutions”. That’s a long way of saying the old-school fossil fuel project is too much hassle when deploying time and money… And that’s because there has been a lot of attention from environmental groups and some traditional landowners on the effects of fracking. Origin is now clear of that distraction but will still earn royalties and says it will buy the gas from any successful Beetaloo development. In total, Origin says it expects to lose $70-90 million on the project this financial year.