Qld politics: State opens gas pipelines to drive down power bills

Premier David Crisafulli guarantees the opening up of new gas fields will drive down electricity prices. VOTE IN OUR POLL

Resources Minister Dale Last

Nine new gas fields will be opened up in Queensland as the state government signals a plan to cut red tape and get more of the fuel out of the ground in order to drive down electricity bills.

Resources Minister Dale Last will unlock 16,000sq km to explorers to tap into new gas reserves across major resource basins.

The area across the Cooper/Eromanga and Bowen/Surat basins will include conventional gas extraction methods, and more controversial coal seam gas.

It would radically increase the stock of available gas field exploration, adding to more than 20,000sq km of land that had been set aside since 2017 to bolster domestic supply.

However conservation groups have slammed the move as shameful and misleading, with gas set to be exported, not sold domestically.

The government said the nine parcels of land would not intersect the Lake Eyre Basin – where new oil and gas developments were banned last year after a long review by the Labor government.

The state government will also announce a three-month land release review which would target transparency and efficiency in order to open more areas for gas exploration.

The review will look into the needs of the resources sector and balance them with agricultural, environmental, and community interests.

It is expected to address changes to land release and competitive tendering processes.

Mr Last said further exploration was vital in order to increase energy supply, which in turn would reduce prices.

He said the government aimed to adjust its regulatory framework so that Queensland would lead the way with energy security.

“Unscientific decisions made by the southern states have left Queensland carrying the load for the east coast gas market,” Mr Last said.

Premier David Crisafulli said on Wednesday opening up gas supply would guarantee downward pressure on energy prices.

“It categorically will,” he said.

“It’s a case of bringing more supply to the market and I can also guarantee that it’s going to create jobs.”

Mr Crisafulli said Australia had lagged on gas exploration and Queensland had, and could continue, to do the heavy lifting.

“I’m not convinced that as a nation, particularly the East Coast, I don’t believe there has been enough gas exploration,” he said.

“Queensland, over the last 15 years has certainly done ensure that heavy lifting, but I do believe that we’ve left a lot of options on the table.

“I want to be ambitious about the future of gas supply, and I want people to invest in this state.”

Australian Energy Producers CEO Samantha McCulloch said the further release of land was important to ensure future gas supply for Australian households.

She said the state government’s stance would increase economic growth and bolster billions in royalty dollars to fund essential services.

“Queensland is already doing the heavy lifting to keep the lights on and ensure reliable gas supply along the east coast of Australia,” she said.

An Australian Competition and Consumer Commissioner report in March noted the reliance of the southern states on Queensland gas to meet domestic shortfalls.

The state already was projected to have a surplus of up to 46 petajoules in the third quarter, depending on if uncontracted gas had been exported.

Premier David Crisafulli

Queensland Conservation Council director Dave Copeman called on the government to be upfront and admit that the gas projects were intended for the international market.

“Around 80 per cent of Australia’s gas is exported,” he said.

“No company is planning to pipe gas from the Bowen Basin to Melbourne.

“Lines in media reports that this will help guarantee domestic supply in southern states are just cynical and misleading.”

The Queensland Conservation Council said that, according to federal data, 1.7bn tonnes of carbon dioxide would be released if the 9510 petajoules of gas was mined from the Bowen Basin.

“That’s more extra climate pollution than the total Queensland can release between now and 2035 if we are to meet our emissions reduction targets,” Mr Copeman said.

“And this is only one of the four basins mentioned in today’s low detail announcement.”

He called the move devastating and deceitful.

“The government should be ashamed to look Queenslanders impacted by climate-fuelled disasters in the eye, and pretend that they care while greenlighting new fossil fuel projects that will only turbo charge these impacts on our communities and country,” he said.

“The 16,000sq km announced today is a greater area of land than all wind farms and solar farms that would be required to get Queensland to 100 per cent renewable energy.”

Lock the Gate national co-ordinator Ellen Roberts said the expansion of gas projects would put Queensland’s water quality at risk.

“Today’s announcement ...will only benefit multinational gas companies, not the people of Queensland,” she said.

“The vast majority of Queensland’s gas is destined for export, not for domestic use.

“There are over 16,000 gas wells already drilled and pockmarking the Queensland landscape - many of them capped and abandoned as gas companies haven’t found the gas resource they wanted,” she said.

“These wells, some many kilometres deep, will stay in our landscape forever - risking the underground water resources that Queensland’s farms and regional communities rely on.”

Ms Roberts said the move to unlock more gas projects was contradictory to the LNP’s stance to protect agricultural land from gas projects in the Darling Downs.

“Now six months on and they’re yet to progress that election commitment - instead expanding the land available for gas,” she said.