HAVING fracked parts of NSW and Queensland, energy miners are now looking to drill deep into Australia's red heart as a gas rush engulfs the Top End.

A map of mining interests compiled by landowners, obtained by the Herald, shows a sea of exploration permits and applications spread across tens of thousands of square kilometres, including around some of the Northern Territory's most distinctive national parks.

Big job in a big land … the NT Environment Centre's Stuart Blanch says the territory has some of the country's weakest laws and only a handful of staff to ensure compliance. Credit:Glenn Campbell

The prospectors are hunting gas trapped thousands of metres deep in shale using techniques similar to those involved in controversial coal seam gas mining.

Large US energy companies are among the applicants who want to extract the gas using new horizontal drilling technology and hydraulic stimulations, or fracking - pumping sand, water and chemicals underground to force out the gas.