Minister for Industry, Greg Hunt, has summoned the east coast gas cartel, from The Australian:
Greg Hunt has summoned the nation’s leading energy executives to Melbourne for crisis talks today on looming gas shortages that are causing spiralling prices and threaten manufacturing jobs.
The Industry Minister will use the meeting to increase pressure on the Victorian and NSW government’s to ease restrictions on gas exploration and development that has tightened supply as Queensland liquefied natural gas exports move into full swing.
Today’s meeting comes ahead of a Council of Australian Governments meeting on Friday at which the federal government will tackle rising concerns about energy security sparked by the recent blackout in South Australia and steep increases in contracted gas prices for manufacturers.
Here they are:
And don’t forget your price hikes as well (my own bill has gone nuts):
What does Mr Hunt have in mind?
…Today’s talks will also place energy executives on notice to maintain competition in a market where manufacturers are complaining of difficulty getting more than one company to bid for supply contracts, in the face of price rises between 50 and 300 per cent.
Chief executives from producers Santos, Esso, Shell and Origin will attend the meeting.
…Mr Hunt last week warned of a manufacturing crisis arising from the gas supply shortage as he hit out at “negligent” state bans on exploration. Mr Hunt said the talks, also attended by Resources Minister Matt Canavan, were aimed at developing strategies to ensure a reliable and affordable supply of gas to meet domestic needs.
…Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg said the Coalition had been steadily opposed against gas reservation policies and that option was not under government consideration.
Then the meeting is waste of time. States are responding to their constituents. And the LNG “market” is a failure of gargantuan proportions. We need some form of reservation, period.
