A simple solution to the east coast gas shortage, page-2

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    If sensible centre is to be the reference point, then the economically rational thing to do whenever there is a scarcity of an economic good for which demand is highly inelastic (such as energy) is to increase the supply of that good.

    To that end, some numbers to provide much-needed context:

    Around 23mt pa of LNG is exported out of Gladstone (in natural gas terms, that's about 1,300 PJ, or 1.2 TCF).

    Between just the east coast basins of the Gunnedah, Bowen/Surat, Cooper, Galilee and Gippsland Basins, there are ~30,900 PJ (27.4 TCF) of contingent gas resources (Source: GeoScience Australia).

    Which means we have almost 24 times more gas sitting under the surface of the earth than east coast LNG exports require.

    Even a modest gas exploration and development program would alleviate the problem within months.

    But that obvious solution would require a modicum of economically rational policy, and the Greens, Lock the Gate fraternity and their ilk were not up for economically rational thinking for the past 15 years, so I'm not sure why they would suddenly adopt such thinking now.

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