WA Premier Roger Cook promises Japan he will step on the gas

WA’s efforts to ­ensure the future of the state’s ­liquefied natural gas exports have been welcomed by Japan, Premier Roger Cook says, as his state attempts to shore up its place in Japan’s energy mix.

WA Premier Roger Cook with Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Hisayuki Fujii during a visit to Japan.

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Western Australia’s efforts to ­ensure the future of the state’s ­liquefied natural gas exports have been welcomed by Japan, Premier Roger Cook says, as his state attempts to shore up its place in Japan’s energy mix.

But he opted against raising Japan’s practice of reselling low-priced Australian LNG cargoes to other countries in Asia, saying West Australians were comfortable with their exports being used to reduce the emissions of other nations.

The WA Premier has been in Japan this week for meetings with government and industry stakeholders, including Japan’s Vice-Minister for International Affairs, Takehiko Matsuo. Mr Cook and Mr Matsuo agreed to continue discussions around co-operating in a host of areas ­including critical minerals, ­hydrogen, ammonia, and carbon capture and storage.

A number of major Japanese groups have in the past year raised concerns about the ­reliability of Australian LNG exports given environmental regulations, industrial relations uncertainty, and government ­interventions.

Since then, the WA government has signed off on Woodside Energy’s plans to extend the life of its North West Shelf LNG plant out to 2070 and pushed hard to derail the first iterations of the federal government’s ­Nature Positive laws.

Speaking to The Australian from Tokyo, Mr Cook said he had used the meetings to reiterate his government’s commitment to being a long-term trading partner and provider of LNG.

“Energy security is of absolute priority here in Japan and they import 90 per cent of their ­energy,” he said. “So making sure that those supply chains remain viable and reliable is obviously something they’re extremely ­focused on.”

Japan’s energy strategy, released earlier this year, will see fossil fuels fall from around 76 per cent of its energy mix in 2019 to just over 40 per cent by 2030. LNG would fall from 37 to 20 per cent as part of that transition.

“But what they are saying to us is that they can’t do the energy transition without LNG as a smoothing and transition field,” Mr Cook said.

Japan’s reduced reliance on coal and gas would also open up other opportunities for WA around critical minerals and ­ammonia. Ammonia can be produced using either gas or renewable energy, and Mr Cook said ammonia was of particular interest to Japan given it can be used as a substitute for up to 20 per cent of the coal currently being fed into the country’s existing modern coal-fired power stations.

“If we can provide them with low-carbon fuels such as ammonia, that allows them to further reduce their overall reliance on coal,” Mr Cook said.

His visit to Japan came less than two months after research from the clean energy advocacy group the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis estimated that Japan had last year onsold between 11.3 million and 14.7 million tonnes of Australian LNG secured under long-term contracts to other customers in Asia. IEEFA estimated that Japanese companies had made more than $1bn in profits from the practice.

Mr Cook said he had not raised Japan’s reselling of Australian LNG during this week’s visit but had discussed it with Japanese representatives in the past.

“What they’ve said to us (previously) is that LNG plays a similar role in those markets as it does in the Japanese market, and that is as a displacement of coal,” he said.

“Many of these countries that they now sell to have got very little renewable energy prospects … But ultimately, Western Australians want to know that their LNG is contributing towards the reduction of global emissions.”

Mr Cook again noted that Western Australia’s long-term gas exports and its heavy focus on emerging industries like critical minerals and ammonia meant that the state’s overall emissions would continue to rise at a time when Australia is trying to move towards net zero.

He said it was important to note that WA’s net zero journey would be “unique”.

“In some respects, Western Australia’s emissions have to increase in order for global emissions to decrease,” he said.

“And that goes for the production of LNG, blue ammonia as it transitions to green ammonia, and the production of green iron in Western Australia. Ultimately, the globe is the winner even though you may see local emissions increase.”