The government of Albanese has shown support for importing gas to the southern states in response to ongoing concerns that local gas output will not be sufficient to fill the gap by 2028.
The government issued a warning in the 67-page planning strategy on Thursday, stating that more gas production from the existing offshore Victorian resources will not be able to mitigate a supply shock to the southern states.
Moreover, the policy paper reveals that the three undeveloped fields in the Surat Basin of Queensland, Narrabri in New South Wales, and Beetaloo Sub-basin in the Northern Territory will not be operational in time to close the projected 2028 shortage.
According to the Albanese government, achieving net zero emissions requires a new gas source.
Rather, the additional gas will have to be delivered from the northern states, from a re-tooled national gas network, the report says. Costly import terminals to transport gas to east coast users could also be required.
This means that not only will QLD be home to the gas export cartel, which has drained the East Coast of its enormous gas endowment, but associated infrastructure largely used to pipe gas south will likely be used to siphon foreign gas south.
But do not be mistaken that we might upset our trading partners Japan and China, which are both overcontracted for gas and reselling it to the highest bidder.
Which may well be Australia.
