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http://business.smh.com.au/gas-boom-to-fire-lng-exports/20080406-243j.html

THE boom in coal-seam gas production in Queensland and NSW could help Australia triple its exports of liquefied natural gas and ensure 70 per cent of new power stations are gas-fired by 2017, the top petroleum industry body says.

Belinda Robinson, the chief executive of the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association, said on Friday that coal-seam gas had proven a huge new source of gas since the Queensland Government mandated 13 per cent of its electricity be sourced from gas-fired generation in 2005.

"One of the big changes that has occurred in Australia over the last couple of years has been coal-seam gas," she said.

"It's been a juggernaut, really. It's revealed an absolutely phenomenal resource in Queensland, and to some extent in NSW."

Ms Robinson would not comment on the merits of four proposed LNG plants at Gladstone, but said there was enough coal-seam gas available to meet both domestic and export demand.

"The amount of coal-seam gas that we have is absolutely enormous," she said.

Queensland is home to the largest coal-seam gas producers, including Queensland Gas, Origin Energy, Santos and Arrow Energy.

But several companies, including Santos, Eastern Star Gas, Molopo Gas and Sydney Gas, have projects in NSW.

Despite the recent boom in coal-seam gas exploration in NSW, Ms Robinson said her organisation would not pressure the state government to enact a similar requirement to Queensland. "We don't support regulated, mandated targets - period.

"While there are targeted policies in Queensland, we didn't lobby for those policies. We don't go state by state advocating targets for any fuel use."

She said the association's target of having 70 per cent of new power stations fired by gas by 2017 was "aspirational" and required the right policy setting, including a properly designed emissions-trading scheme.

Ms Robinson was speaking to media on Friday, before the start of the association's annual conference in Perth today. More than 2200 representatives from the oil and gas industry are expected to attend the event.

Along with the growing influence of coal-seam gas, LNG projects in Western Australia and the prospects of improving Australia's oil production - which peaked in 2000 - are likely to be hot topics at the gathering.

Ms Robinson said Australia's annual LNG production could rise from 20 million tonnes to 50 million or 60 million tonnes within a decade.

The association chairman, Colin Beckett, said the industry also needed to focus on improving oil production by drilling in under-explored areas.

"We have to start soon in frontier areas if we want to be self-sufficient in [oil production] 10 years time," he said, noting that the association was advocating for the Geoscience Australia to conduct as much advance survey work as possible.

"I think what we are trying to do is reduce the risk of failures," he said.

"Less dry holes, so you reduce the cost of finding, which is a key industry metric. The more we understand these areas before we drill, the better off we are."