From the AFR:
Gas industry leaders have sought to paper over the cracks that have split the sector under political pressure over east coast gas shortages, with the chief executives of Santos and Origin Energy calling for unity to find a collective solution to balance LNG export and local gas demands.
But at the same time, Santos chief executive Kevin Gallagher warned that the government is playing a high-risk strategy in seeking to put in place a complex proposed new licensing system for LNG exports by July 1.
“It’s a really short period of time to design a mechanism that works fairly and sustainably,” Mr Gallagher said on the sidelines of the APPEA oil and gas industry conference in Perth.
“Trying to do this in three or four weeks, it’s close on impossible, but it’s high risk, it’s very high high risk.
“You’ve got to remember this is a tool that’s going to be there for governments to use over the next 20, 30 years and we don’t want to be chopping or changing every 3 or 4 years.”
The east coast spot average is today $10.27Gj versus the same gas in Japan at $7.94Gj:
In contract terms – which is where most of the gas that determines your electricity bill and manufacturing viability comes from – Japanese prices are roughly $7Gj versus $20Gj here:
To my mind this is grounds to nationalise this business.
Stop whining and start doing, Santos.
