The US price is currently $3.50mmBtu. The Asian gas price is $7.40mmBtu. The European gas price is around $4.50mmBtu.
In Australia, which has more dirt cheap gas per capita than any of them, the current gas price is $11mmBtu.
Now, I don’t want to upset anyone (well, yes, I do, everyone actually) but we are currently having the following debate about our power transition as well:
Victoria’s aggressive wind and solar push will shut down coal power stations and could send electricity prices skyrocketing, EnergyAustralia has bluntly told the state Labor government.
In a warning that the rapid adoption of renewable energy could spread power grid instability from South Australia to Victoria, EnergyAustralia said the Victorian government was going to force the Yallourn coal power station in Gippsland to close before its 2032 end-of-life date and likely shut other coal plants too.
The energy utility, which is led by Reserve Bank of Australia director Catherine Tanna, accused the government of embarking on a “leap of faith” by declining to conduct a thorough analysis of the impact on electricity prices and the possibility of blackouts from steep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
Pretty ironic stuff from Ms Tanna given it was her that was perhaps the single greatest driving force behind the establishment of the Curtis Island gas export cartel currently holding local prices sky high while they collapse worldwide. Recalling that gas-fired generation sets the marginal cost of electricity.
All that needs to happen to resolve our power transition is for gas reservation to crater the local gas price in line with global markets so it can fulfill the role of dispatchable baseload power as storage catches down in price.
Nobody overseas even needs our gas. There is a MASSIVE global glut. China is reselling it to Japan at half price. Contracts are breaking all over. US and Russian supply is at each other’s throats in Europe.
Break the Australian gas cartel so we can join the rest of the world in the free and easy push to cheaper, cleaner power.
I mean, fark!
