The oil and gas industry plays a major role in Australia's success as a modern nation, says Ian Macfarlane.
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| Ian Macfarlane, Minister for Industry and Science ... Australia is poised to become the world's largest LNG exporter. Wayne Taylor |
by Ian Macfarlane
The following is an excerpt from the speech to be delivered at the APPEA conference by the Minister for Industry and Science, Ian Macfarlane.
The oil and gas industry is one of Australia's most resounding success stories.
BEIJING: Slumping prices saved China more than $160 billion on its imports of commodities such as oil, iron ore, coal and copper last year, official figures showed on Wednesday.
Australia's position as a global energy superpower is in large part due to the growing strength of this industry.
Its importance to our national economy by way of export revenue, job creation and regional development cannot be overemphasised.
Australia's LNG export value in 2014-15 is $18.2 billion and is projected to increase at an annual growth rate of 21 per cent to $46.7 billion in 2019-20.
Australians use more oil and gas than any other energy source and this trend is expected to increase in the years ahead.
Oil and gas will continue to account for more than two-thirds of Australia's energy consumption to the end of the forecast period in 2049–50.
Given its importance to our economy and energy security, the oil and gas industry plays a major role in our success as a modern nation.
We are in an exciting period of both significant transition and great opportunity for Australia's oil and gas industry.
This year marks a new industry milestone with the east coast producing its first LNG – and the world's first LNG export from unconventional gas from Queensland's Curtis LNG Project.
This project joins the North West Shelf, Pluto and Darwin LNG operating projects – and there's more to come.
With the Australia-Pacific and Gladstone LNG projects scheduled to start production this year, 2015 will be a momentous year for the east coast's oil and gas industry.
The future also looks bright for the north-west, where construction of the Gorgon, Wheatstone, Ichthys and Prelude projects is well advanced, and production is due to start in the next few years.
We hope that in the next two years we can add Browse FLNG to our list of committed developments.
Australia is strengthening its leadership position significantly in the global natural gas industry.
We are the only LNG-producing country in the world with projects in construction that use three LNG production models.
Conventional offshore gas with onshore LNG production, floating LNG production, and coal seam gas-based LNG production are all part of the industry's impressive development portfolio.
The majority of current global investment in LNG projects is in Australia and we are poised to become the world's largest LNG exporter by the end of this decade.
This is an extraordinary achievement that reflects the breadth of knowledge and technological knowhow in the industry, and the diversity of our natural resources.
However there are challenges facing the petroleum sector, including the significant movement in oil prices which impacts on the oil and gas industry on an everyday basis, as well as affecting long-term decision-making.
Australia's LNG projects under construction continue to forge ahead despite the challenges, but we shouldn't be complacent. We should turn our focus towards securing the next wave of investments.
It is particularly important we don't overlook the ongoing growth in gas demand, particularly here in the Asia-Pacific region, which has experienced around 7 per cent year-on-year growth in gas demand over the past few years.
To capitalise on emerging opportunities to help meet this demand, we must remain competitive and continue to secure new investment.
While the industry does its bit to contain project costs, the government is putting in place the right policy settings to support the sector. This includes the energy white paper, which is a blueprint for enhancing energy productivity and investment, and the establishment of a growth centre for oil, gas and energy resources.
We are strengthening the policy and regulatory environment to help ensure the industry remains competitive and continues to attract investment.
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