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The ad, which reads “90% of WA’s gas is exported, mostly royalty free”, is being published just days ahead of the annual general meeting of Woodside, one of Australia’s largest gas producers and greenhouse polluters.

The full-page ad draws on Australia Institute research into gas use in WA and the gas royalty system.

Key findings:

• The LNG industry exports 35 times the amount of gas WA uses for electricity generation
• LNG producers themselves are the state’s biggest users of gas, using 2.5 times more than WA’s electricity generation to process gas for export.
• No royalties are paid on two thirds of the gas exported from WA. No royalties are paid on gas exported from Chevron’s Gorgon and Wheatstone projects, Woodside’s Pluto LNG and Shell’s Prelude.

“It is staggering that our governments allow a handful of multinational gas corporations to export 90% of WA’s gas and give most of it to them for free,” says Mark Ogge, Principal Adviser at The Australia Institute.

“Meanwhile, Western Australian customers are short of gas and are paying ever higher prices.

“Royalties are the payment for the right to extract and sell WA’s resources. Iron ore miners know this. Royalty-free gas is effectively given to the gas industry for free.

“The imbalance between gas use by Western Australia and exports exposes how phony industry claims are that they need to drill for even more gas to avoid shortages.

“WA is awash with gas. The confected gas shortage is a ruse by global oil and gas companies to gouge consumers and justify massive new export projects.

“The end result is an industry that gets a free ride, and Western Australian taxpayers miss out.

“Woodside will put out a lot of spin at this week’s AGM, but Western Australians deserve the truth about the gas industry.”