The Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association welcomes the further steps taken by Queensland and South Australia this week to meet eastern Australia’s ongoing natural gas needs.
The Queensland Government yesterday awarded more than 2700 square kilometres of exploration acreage to four companies and opened a new round of bids to explore 3700 square kilometres of land in central Queensland.
In South Australia, over 20,000 square kilometres has been made available for future oil and gas exploration in the Cooper Basin in the north east of the state and the Otway Basin in the south east.
APPEA Chief Executive Andrew McConville said the two states, which have led the development of onshore gas fields in Australia for decades, continue to do the heavy lifting on meeting Australia’s gas needs, while development remains stalled in large gas-using states of Victoria and New South Wales.
“Queensland and SA are to be congratulated for continuing to see the economic benefits that flow to their communities from developing and using natural gas,” Mr McConville said.
“More gas supply into the Australian domestic market can help make a significant difference to the millions of homes and thousands of businesses that use gas – underpinning hundreds of thousands of jobs in Australian manufacturing and other sectors.”
Mr McConville said restrictions on supply in southern eastern states is increasing the price users are paying for gas and the only way to meet ongoing demand is real action to deliver more supply.
“We encourage Victoria and NSW to follow Queensland and SA’s lead,” Mr McConville said.
“Making this happen should be the focus of government, industry and all Australian businesses that rely on sustainable gas supply.”
