And keeps being put, this time by BG who seem to agree with BHPP ...
GAS giant BG Group Australia says there is no looming shortage of gas in New South Wales or any other east coast state, and accused gas consumers of waging a scare campaign.
There is gas there if people are willing to pay for it, says BG Group chair Catherine Tanna.
As well as sources like Bass Strait and the Cooper Basin in South Australia, reduced electricity demand in NSW, where the state government has moved to extend a ban on coal-seam gas exploration and production, is expected to free up some gas.
In a speech to a conference in Canberra today, Ms Tanna pointed to last month's $3 billion NSW-bound Bass Strait gas supply deal between Origin Energy and suppliers Exxon Mobil and BHP Billiton as an example of available gas.
“When gas users say gas is unavailable, they are often really saying they cannot contract gas at a price they want to pay,” Ms Tanna said.
“Gas is available, it may not be at a price that matches historical prices, but it is available.”
BG is building one of three $20 billion LNG export projects at Gladstone in Queensland that will rapidly triple east gas demand and potentially triple wholesale gas prices beyond 2015.
Big gas users, including Incitec Pivot and BlueScope Steel, have called for an investigation into gas reservation and other ways to offset a looming rise in gas prices.
“This group (big industrial gas users) seems to want to feed a steady diet of gloom about gas availability and price that can be summed up as: there is no gas available at any price,” Ms Tanna said.
“This is not true.”
Ms Tanna pointed to an expected reduction in electricity demand, particularly in NSW and Queensland, which has already resulted in mothballing of gas-fired generation in Queensland.
“This is also likely to happen in NSW and we expect it to affect gas availability positively as generators look to resell this gas,” she said.
Ms Tanna said the most important way to deal with gas supply and cost was to grow exploration and production, not reserve gas or restrict exports.
“While the obvious low-hanging fruit is in NSW, the federal and Queensland governments have considerable opportunity to co-operate on improving regulatory performance,” she said.
Ms Tanna said yesterday's decision by NSW to extend the ban on CSG increased the perception of risk for the nation.
“If you picked up the newspaper this morning you would have seen enormous risk and it's become more elaborate, “ she said.
She said political leadership and will was needed to overcome the problems in NSW, including more streamlined rules and regulations among states.
