Russian economy growth over 3% To surpass Japan in 3 to 4 years., page-47

Santos et al discover gas and then need a couple of bill $s to develop the wells and build the gas trains. At that point they search for buyers who will COMMIT to take or pay contracts. These must be long term because it takes time to return the capital and keep the lenders happy.

Waddyano, China and Japan sign the contracts and get access to "early adopter" prices for many years. Australians had the same offer, BTW. They were too short sighted and sat on their hands.

They now have no right to cry poor and insist that the gas companies break contracts to supply the domestic market. Besides: How can Melbourne get gas from the NW Shelf or out of Gladstone? The MUA has crippled domestic shipping so it would be cheaper to buy out of the Singapore hub than to use coastal shipping. Do Syd or Mlb have LNG receiving stations? They cost money and Vic certainly would never have built one and we should already have pipes, the cheapest way to move gas, but no one spends the money. Politicians feed our tax dollars into pork barrels not nation building enterprises.