The energy sector, tired of being flogged by activists, is determined to repair its tarnished image

Tired of being cast as the villain in the climate wars, the gas industry is determined to win the hearts and minds of the Australian public.

Extinction Rebellion protester Meme Thorne is arrested after disrupting Adelaide traffic this week. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Back in 2010 the Australian mining sector went on the attack – faced with the prospect of a Kevin Rudd-backed super profits tax set to strip countless millions of dollars out of investors’ hands.

Bankrolled to the tune of several tens of million of dollars, the nation’s biggest miners set about telling their story to ordinary Australians, and sent a clear message to politicians about the risks inherent in taking on the sector.

When Julia Gillard toppled then prime minister Rudd to take the top job, one of her first acts was to suspend the government’s own pro-tax advertising campaign – and vastly water down the tax itself – prompting the miners, including BHP and Rio Tinto, to stand down.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young addresses protesters in Adelaide. Picture: Morgan Sette

The triumph of the mining sector in that battle, which continues to resonate whenever tax increases or other perceived impediments to the sector are contemplated, serves as a textbook example of the power of public perception, and its flow-on impact on policy.

It was also an example raised at the oil and gas industry’s major annual powwow, the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association’s (APPEA) annual conference, which was held over four days in Adelaide this week.

Within the walls of the Adelaide Convention Centre there was much talk about the industry’s role in transitioning to net-zero carbon, including through the increased use of carbon capture and storage and eventually hydrogen. Yet it was the antics of protest group Extinction Rebellion – with one protester dangling from the Morphett St Bridge in Adelaide’s CBD – which predictably led local news bulletins.

The Australian oil and gas industry is currently neither primed, nor keen, to go to war with politicians over energy policy.

To be sure, they’ve lost some skin over issues such as the emergency price cap of $12 per gigajoule of gas imposed in December last year and now in place until mid-2025.

But a recent win resulted in changes to the petroleum resource rent tax in the federal budget being watered down at the eleventh hour.

Along with the announcement of a future gas strategy in the federal budget, frosty relations with the government seem to be thawing.

APPEA chair Meg O'Neill speaking at this week’s conference: Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Energy Minister Chris Bowen have made supportive comments recently about gas’s role in the economy.

But the industry, somewhat inexplicably to its own members, still finds itself being cast as the enemy in the net-zero debate and the Greens overtly want the industry to shut up shop, and the sooner the better.

However the reality, the industry says, and all credible data would attest, is that gas will be with us for decades to come.

And the reasons, articulated often and at length at the conference this week, are many.

Chief among these is that for many industrial processes, gas simply cannot be easily replaced.

Fertiliser manufacture and many other industrial processes are reliant upon it.

Gas is also touted as an important transition fuel for the move away from coal to cleaner sources of power, a journey which will only be aided by the increasing use of CCS, the industry argues.

And yet, gas somehow seems to have found itself tarred with the same brush as the fuels at the dense end of the carbon-emissions spectrum, with protesters gleefully calling for an end to its production.

A major issue, Credit Suisse energy analyst Saul Kavonic told the conference this week, was that “the gas sector is now fundamentally unpopular’’.

This meant, he said, that getting stuck into the gas industry from a political point of view – note the rise of the Teals political movement particularly in NSW – leaving the door open to policy changes which are not in its best interests.

Mr Kavonic said the more pragmatic green organisations were being crowded out by extreme groups such as Extinction Rebellion, some of which were “incredibly sophisticated and well resourced”.

Santos managing director Kevin Gallagher says the industry should get on the front foot.

The answer, he said, was for the industry to adopt the grassroots approach of its opponents, and also take a leaf out the book of successful marketing campaigns run in the past by sectors such as mining and clubs.

The debate, he said, would not be won in the financial pages, but would be won in the pages of publications such as Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.

“How do you cut through with the message to the guy on the street who’s got better things to do than spend 100 hours going through an intricate report … to actually say, this is the value of gas,” he said.

“I think we need to see the industry completely change approach.

“Be more like the mining industry, like the clubs industry, for example, and actually campaign.

“If you can’t beat them, copy them. Look at how green groups and activist groups have built grassroots campaigns to support their narrative over a decade.

“It’s going to take time. It’s not about confrontation. It’s actually about that grassroots campaign that other sectors have successfully done.’’

APPEA chair and Woodside Energy managing director Meg O’Neill said the industry in the US had done this reasonably well, recruiting individual citizens to weigh in on the issues.

“I think there’s an opportunity for us in Australia to take a page out of that book,’’ Ms O’Neill said.

The conference was also given an advanced look at a marketing campaign APPEA will launch in coming weeks, which seeks to improve the profile of gas among the general public.

It was designed, Ms O’Neill said, to address the fact that “some in the parliament, and many in the community, do not know the central role natural gas plays in the Australian economy and their everyday lives’’.

“This awareness campaign, and its focus on our industry’s contribution to our economy and to emissions reductions, is not a policy pivot, or reset,’’ she said.

“Rather, it reflects our strengthened resolve to be more forward-leaning about our sector’s strong future and critical role in the net zero economy … in Australia, in our region and globally.’’

Santos managing director Kevin Gallagher said the industry, which had a vital role to play in the transition to net zero, faced opponents which were “only about killing oil and gas’’.

While he was not keen to pick a fight with the federal government over issues such as the gas market interventions, preferring to find a bipartisan solution, he did encourage those in the industry, which has preferred to “keep our head down’’, to be more proactive in telling its story.

“As an industry, we’ve sought to keep our head down and try to stay out of the firing line, but we’re in the firing line and so we do have to fight back, but I don’t think that’s going to war with everybody,’’ he said.

“But I do think standing up for ourselves means that we have to be there telling our story and making sure that people understand the benefits of gas and that the need for gas will be here for a long time.’’

Originally published as The energy sector, tired of being flogged by activists, is determined to repair its tarnished image