Burned the AFR on the barbie:
China has backed Japanese alarm that Australia is slowly abandoning LNG exports, saying it is a “major issue” as the Albanese government weighs up crimping foreign gas sales and saddles the sector with tough new emissions reduction measures.
In an exceptional example of North Asian solidarity, China’s embassy in Canberra added its voice to accusations by the head of Japanese gas company Inpex that Australia was “quietly quitting” the LNG export market.
“It’s a major issue involving concerns of both of us,” the embassy said when asked by AFR Weekend if it shared the same views as Inpex Corporation chief Takayuki Ueda.
This is not “solidarity”. It is a news story cooked up by the AFR with editorialising embedded in the angle. China and Japan also presumably agree that the planet is round.
Here are the points that matter:
- Australia owns the gas.
- A foreign-owned, China-sponsored, gas cartel seized the reserves by outright lying about how much they owned and have benn starving the local market ever since.
- Japan just complained about restrictions on exports because it may force it to rely on gas from China.
- Bizarrely, China is now complaining even though it re-exports large quantities of imported gas.
The facts of the case are muddied by vested interest but they are still the facts. The implications are:
- There is no energy security for anybody unless Australia has energy security.
- There is no such security while east coast gas is a failed market. The failure was brought about by vicious corporations on the supply side and a vicious dictatorship on the demand side.
- The only answer for all is to domestically reserve more gas. Every other gas exporter in the world does this. WA does it. The home of free markets, the US, does it. Atavistic nations such as Trinidad, PNG, and Mozambique do it.
- The cartel can produce enough gas for all concerned for decades without breaking any contracts. It is gaming everybody instead.
On the imposition of environmental conditions such as forcing producers to deal with their carbon output, and? We are either addressing climate change or we are not.
Basically, for years, the AFR has only ever assessed the failed east coast gas market using partial analysis in defense of vested interests, foreign raiders, enemy dictatorships, and now, an angry ally (who we should look after).
This isn’t journalism. Nor is it credible economics. It is trickle-down treason.
The one thing Albo’s idiots have finally gotten right is the reforms to the ADGSM, which is now reviewed quarterly and foists demands directly upon the export cartel. The regime began on Saturday and the lever should be pulled immediately given the AEMO warning:
AEMO’s gas adequacy report forecasts that existing, committed and anticipated natural gas production will meet customer demand until 2027 in central and eastern Australia, however, supply risks this winter remain in the southern states1 under certain conditions.
The 2023 Gas Statement of Opportunities (GSOO) report – incorporating input from gas producers and operators of gas processing facilities, pipelines and storage facilities – also reaffirms the important role gas-fired generation will play in reducing emissions and bolstering electricity reliability as the power system transitions from coal to intermittent renewable generation.
Complementing the GSOO is AEMO’s Victorian Gas Planning Report (VGPR), which provides a five-year assessment of the supply demand balance in Victoria’s Declared Transmission System (DTS).
AEMO CEO Daniel Westerman said the short-term gas shortfall risks and long-term supply gaps, due to declining production in southern Australia, continue from the 2022 GSOO.
“The risk of gas shortfalls each year from winter 2023 to 2026 in all southern jurisdictions remains under extreme weather conditions and periods of high gas-powered electricity generation, with those risks further exacerbated if gas storage levels are insufficient,” Mr Westerman said.
Do it and let the gas cartel sort out its own bloody mess.
