Gas exporters on notice to lock in more supplies for Australians

The Age

27-05-2025

Oil and gas executives have been put on notice that the re-elected Albanese government will make them do more to avert local energy shortfalls, as Resources Minister Madeleine King warns Australians are 'tired of seeing our vast gas resources exported overseas' while paying high prices at home.
While some of the nation's top gas producers make billions of dollars shipping liquefied natural gas (LNG) overseas from Queensland, authorities warn consumers in the south-east, including Victoria and NSW, are at risk of gas shortages in as little as three years unless more supplies are urgently made available.
'Australians recognise this to be unfair,' King told industry leaders gathered at the Australian Energy Producers conference in Brisbane.
'The Australian gas industry should pay careful attention to public concern of rising gas prices and supply gaps.'
However, Kevin Gallagher, the head of Adelaide-based gas giant Santos, has pushed back against the threat of another wave of heavy-handed regulatory scrutiny, warning that ad-hoc government interventions to fix supply and prices have all 'backfired' so far. 'They've had the opposite impact that was intended,' he said.
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The threat of domestic gas shortfalls comes as the 50-year-old Gippsland Basin gas fields in Bass Strait, which have traditionally provided the bulk of eastern Australia's domestic gas, have begun rapidly depleting, with scant new supply projects to replace them, sending prices higher.
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.'