The NT Government is set to allow fracking companies to sell gas from the Beetaloo Basin before production approvals are granted. 

The government is seeking changes to the Petroleum Act to allow companies to sell or use gas fracked during the “appraisal phase” of their activities, when they are meant to assess the viability of gas reserves.

The government claims it wants to reduce the amount of appraisal-phase gas being burned or released at the point of extraction.

It says the changes will not take effect until all recommendations from a wide-ranging inquiry into fracking - which has acted as a guiding document for regulation - have been met.

However, the inquiry did not recommend this change.

In fact, the new rules are in line with an almost identical proposal from a gas company months before it was introduced as legislation.

The change, set to begin next year, has been slammed by Indigenous groups.

“There was no consultation, no modelling of the impact or volumes involved, no time for us to properly consider it, no consideration of alternatives, absolutely no respect for traditional owners and native title holders,” Northern Land Council (NLC) chief executive Joe Martin-Jard said in a statement.

“It's disgraceful.”

“This thing they call 'appraisal gas' is really stolen gas,” NLC chairman Samuel Bush-Blanasi said.

“Except it's the Territory government that's stealing it and handing it over to industry.”

The Central Land Council (CLC) says the proposal could erode the rights of traditional owners and native title holders.

“This bill is not a well-considered solution to the issue of appraisal gas and could harm Aboriginal Territorians,” CLC chief executive Les Turner said.