In an attack on federal Resources Minister Madeleine King, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has been caught misleading the nation and the state of Victoria.
Queensland will be delighted.
Irrespective of your views of the Victorian premier, he is a brilliant politician who rarely makes such a mistake – especially in dealing with Canberra. He may have been misled by his own energy minister.
The contrast between what the premier said and the facts is stunning.
“Well, with the greatest respect to Minister King, I direct to her to the lead scientist, who makes it very clear that there are no known or probable onshore reserves that can be conventionally extracted,” Mr Andrews said.
Getting gas-rich Vic to import costly LNG is ludicrous
The facts are that Daniel Andrews is absolutely correct about the conclusions of the $42m committee headed by the lead scientist.
But, the high-cost committee was ordered not look at the areas where Victoria has vast reserves of deep gas because their development at the time was banned.
The government’s strict ‘don’t look’ instruction also covered the reserves of Lakes Oil in Gippsland and gas in the Otways near the South Australian border.
The committee dutifully obeyed the government instructions so making its conclusion a nonsense.
The truth is in the publicly available government records and shows that the vast reserves in the ‘don’t look’ Gippsland area have actually been calculated by world-renowned US gas and oil reserve estimator MHA Petroleum Consultants, now part of the giant Sproule group.
Victoria’s gas reserves not only exist but have been measured by the most qualified people in the world.
“So, if you want us to frack the place, ah, no, that’s not happening … that is not happening – and we couldn’t have been clearer,” Mr Andrews said.
The facts are that Victoria’s vast onshore Gippsland gas reserves do not require fracking.
The low-cost Gippsland gas is rare in the world. It is dissolved in incredibly pure water that would transform the water outlook of the dry parts of the region, grow plants and trees that absorb carbon and protect higher rainfall parts of Gippsland from drought.
And the gas is so deep — between 500 metres and 1200 metres – that the water and its gas could be extracted without posing any danger to the Gippsland underground rivers called aquifers, which are used by farmers.
The gas existence is not in doubt but it does require about six holes to double test the early wells conclusions that the gas will flow easily to the surface.
“We export 70 per cent of our gas and it’s not for me to give advice to Minister King, but if I can, as politely as possible, perhaps suggest to her that a national domestic gas reserve would be what we need so that our gases for our businesses and our households and the rest of it, the bit we don’t need – sell that to the world and get the best price you can,” Mr Andrews said.
“But we shouldn’t have to compete against the rest of the world for something that comes out of our ground and our seabed. And I reckon a national minister would be really well-placed to do that. I’d do it here if I could, but there’s a thing called the Constitution, and I’m not able to do that.”
The facts are that Victoria ‘exports’ gas to NSW.
Victorian gas reserves rival Queensland and are much cheaper to extract.
Why on earth would Australia have a national gas reserve to help the state that, for political reasons, will not develop its gas into a fantastic low-cost adjunct to its solar and wind developments?
Woodside calls on Victoria to open up gas, LNG imports
In response, Ms King said “it’s really up to the Victorian government to decide how they will pursue energy security for manufacturing and domestic consumers.”
“But, you know, they’ve clearly got a challenge, as has NSW. I mean, Victoria, yesterday was over 70 per cent powered by brown coal in its power generation system. So, there’s a long journey for Victoria to move from a principally brown coal-based power generation, jurisdiction to renewables. They’re working on that pathway. And I really respect that.”
The federal minister is diplomatically telling the Victorian Premier the truth.
What she does not say is that the Victorian government is partly to blame for higher gas prices in Victoria and looming gas and power shortages.
But there is hope for Victorians.
Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas has convinced the premier that Victoria has a debt problem and that it needs investment.
Mr Pallas secured a deal with Japan to allocate $2.35bn towards a project to use carbon capture and storage to convert brown coal into hydrogen for export to Japan.
According to press reports Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio, is not in favour.
Tongue-in-cheek may I suggest the energy minister set up a $42m committee to determine whether Victoria has the brown coal to justify such an investment and then carefully instruct the committee not to look in Gippsland and other areas known to have brown coal?
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