The chief executive of the Northern Lands Council (NLC) Norman Fry said he expected an agreement to be reached within the next month on the level of Aboriginal involvement in the line, which will transport the Woodside Energy-operated Blacktip gas from the Bonaparte Basin in the west to Alcan’s alumina refinery in Gove to the east.

He said Aboriginal equity in the pipeline would deliver much needed economic independence to Territory indigenous communities.

The office of Federal Aboriginal Affairs Amanda Vanstone said it would fund a study into the economic benefits of using public funds to finance Aboriginal equity in the project.

It is understood that the pipeline’s owners, Alcan, Woodside and the Italian-ENI/Agip, have no objection to Aboriginal equity as long as the deal was structured on commercial terms.

The Northern Lands Council said it would seek to fund any acquisition from the Aboriginal Benefits Account and though debt raised against the equity in the pipeline. Fry said the NLC had approached the NT and Federal governments for a $105 million loan. The Aboriginal Benefits Account is funded through mining royalties.

Fry was reported as saying “It’s about us being integrated into the wider economy of the Northern Territory and hence Australia.

“This type of strategic approach to economic development is the only way that we can see to create a perception for our people that there’s not only a tomorrow, but that they are in control of what that tomorrow’s going to look like.”