Mereenie is a locality in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It is about 250 km west of

Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...

and northeast of

Uluru Uluru (; pjt, Uluṟu ), also known as Ayers Rock ( ) and officially Gazette#Gazette as a verb, gazetted as UluruAyers Rock, is a large sandstone geological formation, formation in the centre of Australia. It is in the southern part of the ...

. It is on the "Inner Mereenie Loop" road which was completed as a sealed road in 2016 providing access for caravans and two-wheel-drive vehicles. The

2016 Australian census The 2016 Australian census was the 17th national population census held in Australia. The census was officially conducted with effect on Tuesday, 9 August 2016. The total population of the Commonwealth of Australia was counted as – an incre ...

which was conducted in August 2016 reports that Mereenie had 30 people living within its boundaries. Mereenie is located within the federal division of Lingiari, the territory electoral division of Stuart and the local government area of the

MacDonnell Region The MacDonnell Regional Council is a local government area of the Northern Territory, Australia. The region covers an area of and had an estimated population of 6,863 people in June 2018. Geography MacDonnell Regional Council occupies the so ...

Mereenie Oil Field

The Mereenie Oil Field is a source of oil and gas in the

Amadeus Basin The Amadeus Basin is a large (~170,000 km2) intracratonic sedimentary basin in central Australia, lying mostly within the southern Northern Territory, but extending into the state of Western Australia. Origins The Amadeus Basin is named ...

. It is connected to Darwin by the

Amadeus Gas Pipeline The Amadeus Gas Pipeline is a bi-directional natural gas pipeline running north–south through the Northern Territory of Australia. Its southern extent is the Amadeus Basin gas fields west of Alice Springs. The Amadeus pipeline is owned and ope ...

and to Alice Springs by an oil pipeline. It was discovered in 1963 and began production in 1984. Since then it has produced over 16 million barrels of oil and

condensate Condensate may refer to: * The liquid phase produced by the condensation of steam or any other gas * The product of a chemical condensation reaction, other than water * Natural-gas condensate, in the natural gas industry * ''Condensate'' (album) ...

and over . Production in 2014 was 225,600 barrels of oil, 41,000 BOE of condensate and 5 PJ of natural gas. Since September 2015, the oil and gas field has been operated by Central Petroleum. Central is 50% owner with a subsidiary of

Macquarie Bank Macquarie Group Limited () is an Australian global financial services group. Headquartered and listed in Australia (), Macquarie employs more than 17,000 staff in 33 markets, is the world's largest infrastructure asset manager and Australia's ...

owning the other 50% since 2017 when it bought that share from

Santos Limited Santos Ltd. (South Australia Northern Territory Oil Search) is an Australian oil and gas exploration and production company, with its headquarters in Adelaide, South Australia. It owns liquefied natural gas (LNG), pipeline gas, and oil assets. ...

References

MacDonnell Region Mining towns in the Northern Territory Oil fields of Australia {{NorthernTerritory-geo-stub