From the AFR: McGowan defends exemption for Beach's Waitsia...

From the AFR:

McGowan defends exemption for Beach's Waitsia project

Brad ThompsonReporter
Aug 18, 2020 – 4.40pm


[West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has defended his decision to give a big leg-up to the Waitsia onshore gas project being developed by the Kerry Stokes-backed Beach Energy in partnership with Japan’s Mitsui conglomerate.

The McGowan government has moved to tighten its domestic gas reservation policy but made an exception for the Waitsia stage two project in the state’s mid-west.]

[Under the exception, the WA government has given in-principle support to allowing Waitsia to fill available capacity at the North West Shelf LNG plant and export some of its gas as LNG for a short period of time.

The decision gives Waitsia exposure to the more lucrative LNG export market rather than just WA’s domestic market, where prices are kept artificially low by the reservation policy.]


[The tighter rules are to ensure that there are no exports to the eastern states or overseas, with the exclusion of Waitsia, and reinforce the WA government’s fierce opposition to a west-east transcontinental pipeline.

“Cutting off a potential market for any gas developed is a sure way to signal that WA is not open for business. Worryingly, there was no industry consultation on this sudden change to the domestic gas reservation policy,” APPEA’s WA director, Claire Wilkinson, said.]