One of Australia's biggest energy company compares Victoria to North Korea
D'Ambrosio on Wednesday said a combination of lower demand and new gas investment – including a $350 million ExxonMobil and Woodside program to drill new wells in Bass Strait – had helped push out the market operator's forecast gas shortfall from 2028 to 2029.
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The Victorian government had approved the only new application for a gas production permit it had received in the past 10 years, and was seeking to fast-track other approvals, she added.
'We've always said gas is part of our energy transition,' D'Ambrosio said. 'We're working to bring on more gas supply.'
There are eight gas-exploration permits onshore in Victoria and three exploration permits in offshore Victorian waters.
Speaking at the Australian Energy Producers (AEP) conference in Brisbane on Wednesday, Gallagher said ambiguity over state and federal environmental approvals processes made Australia one of the most difficult places to sanction new investments.
'We've got 100 years of gas under our feet,' he said. But only a 'fraction' of Australia's known prospective gas basins were presently in development, he said.
Work ground to a halt at Santos's $5.8 billion Barossa gas project off the Northern Territory in 2023 after environmental lawyers secured last-minute legal orders to block the construction of a pipeline by arguing the company had not adequately consulted Tiwi Islander traditional owners – claims that were later dismissed.
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Its controversial Narrabri gas project in northern NSW, which could deliver up to half of NSW's natural gas needs, has also run into years of delays amid legal appeals and objections from environmental activists, some landholders and the Gomeroi traditional owners, who fear the plans to drill 850 gas wells could inflict irreversible damage on their culture, lands and waters and worsen global warming.
Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King this week put oil and gas executives on notice that the re-elected Albanese government will make them do more to avert local energy shortfalls.
Speaking at the AEP conference on Tuesday, King said Australians were 'tired of seeing our vast gas resources exported overseas' while paying high prices at home.
Some Australian LNG producers were 'doing the right thing' in ensuring the market had enough gas, added King, who pointed to agreements struck this year to divert an extra nine petajoules of gas to stave off a quarterly supply deficit. 'I thank them for that,' she said.
'But there remains a lot of work to do to ensure the domestic market remains well supplied.'
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Carbon tariff on the table for overseas businesses
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News.com.au
10 hours ago
- News.com.au
Approval of Woodside's North West Shelf gas extension to 2070 slammed by religious leaders
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West Australian
10 hours ago
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Faith leaders say they are 'deeply troubled' by the Federal Government's decision to approve the extension of the North West Shelf gas processing facility to 2070. On Wednesday, Labor approved a 40-year extension of the country's largest gas plant. While Environment Minister Murray Watt's decision to grant the approval for Woodside's North West Shelf extension in Western Australia's Pilbara has been praised by industry and unions, others have condemned it due to the threat to the Murujuga cultural heritage. President of the Uniting Church in Australia, Rev Charissa Suli told reporters in Perth on Sunday, she is 'profoundly disappointed' about the approval of the North West Shelf gas processing facility. 'As a daughter of the Pacific, I have witnessed first-hand the devastating impacts of climate change on culturally rich but environmentally vulnerable nations in our region,' she said. 'These nations — many of which are home to Uniting Church partners within the Asia-Pacific — contribute the least to global emissions yet suffer the greatest consequences. 'Why then is approval granted to an old, polluting facility to continue emitting vast volumes of climate damaging emissions of a magnitude many times greater than the emissions of all the Pacific nations? This is not loving thy neighbour.' Rev Mitchell Garlett from the Uniting Aboriginal & Islander Christian Congress added he is 'very disappointed' that the decision was made without 'close consultation with the relevant Traditional Owners'. 'The connection we feel to Country is not just a physical thing but a spiritual connection that is deeper than what we see with our eyes,' he said. 'It is heartbreaking that reconciliation is spoken of but our brothers and sisters voices are not being heard, and the land continues to suffer for so-called progress.' Rev Dr Ian Tozer added they are 'deeply concerned' by the threat to First Nations cultural heritage sites, including 60,000-year-old priceless petroglyphs at the World Heritage nominated Murujuga rock art site. 'It is vital that these ancient sites, so precious to Australia's First Peoples and to our history, are not further damaged by industry,' he said. Meanwhile, Woodside has said the approval would support thousands of jobs and supply affordable energy to Western Australia. The project has supplied 6000 petajoules of domestic gas, powering homes and industry in Western Australia with enough energy to power homes in a city the size of Perth for approximately 175 years, the company said. Environmental groups estimate the project will produce 4.3 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions over its lifetime.
