Resources Minister pledges clarity on offshore gas approvals
Resources Minister Madeleine King has recognised the gas industry’s concern over approvals and consultation for offshore projects and said the Federal Government is working to provide clarity and certainty on the processes.
Addressing a WA Government Energy Summit, Minister King said the Government accepted that “the situation we are in right now does not always provide…certainty”.
Santos Managing Director Kevin Gallagher told the Energy Club this month that climate activism and litigation were squarely aimed at finding loopholes in Australia’s legal system to stop oil and gas projects and that the approvals process overseen by the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority was not working.
In her address to the summit, Minister King said: “I understand that the gas industry is concerned about the pace of approvals and the uncertainty around consultation processes that recent judicial developments have raised.
“The Government now is working to ensure there is clarity for everyone – everyone – around the consultation requirements for all offshore projects.
“But this cannot be a one-way street.
“There has been a lot of opportunity over the decades for there to have been comprehensive consultation with the local community and traditional owners, and I wish more had been done in that regard.
“Industry must do better in its consultations and engagement. They must be of the highest order, particularly when it comes to engagement with Traditional Owners.
“No one needs to wait for government to tell them to do the right thing.”
She said it would be unfair as well as untrue to suggest that the delay in bringing the Scarborough and Browse fields to production was the fault of governments alone.
Woodside first identified the resource of the Browse gas field more than 50 years ago, and Scarborough was discovered in 1979.
“Over the decades since the discoveries of those fields, corporate decisions to put off capital expenditure have occurred for various reasons, and in the meantime expectations of the community have changed,” she said.
“Particularly in the last 10 to 20 years, Browse – Australia’s largest untapped gas resource – has been caught up in delays amid uncertainty in demand, difficulties over processing agreements, corporate decision-making, community misgivings around the James Price Point hub plan and its subsequent cancellation, and a challenging community of joint venture partners.”
She said as well as conducting a review to make sure offshore regulations were fit for purpose, the Government was also working on its Future Gas Strategy to map out the role of gas in the economy into the future as in the drive toward net zero.
“While the much of the excitement around energy and power is currently on critical minerals and rare earths, we should not forget that we will very much need the support of our broader traditional resources industry to pave the road to net zero,” Minister King said.
“We can’t build wind turbines and solar panels without iron ore. Manufacturers in Asia can’t make steel at scale without coking coal from Queensland and New South Wales.
“And we can’t process those critical minerals without gas.
“We will also need gas to support our energy network for a long time to come as coal generation drops out.
“This State is the most gas dependent economy in Australia.
“As the Australian Energy Market Operator noted in its 2023 Wholesale Electricity Market Statement of Opportunities in August, new projects requiring over 1,300 Megawatts of power were considered as ‘probable’ for coming online in Western Australia in 2025-26 financial year.
“Much of that increased power demand will need to be met by gas.
“It is also often forgotten that our exported gas plays a critical role in providing energy security to our region.
“Energy security is no small thing. It has been a key factor in the peace and prosperity we have enjoyed in this part of the world for the past many decades.
“As I have said a fair bit recently, if we are not supplying LNG to our neighbours, it does not necessarily follow that they will stop using it. They might simply look elsewhere for those supplies. And if they do Australia’s voice in our region would be diminished.
“The road to net zero runs through the Australia’s resources sector. But the start of that road is right here in Western Australia.”