AUST Business today (extract): ENERGY GIANTS RAISE ALARM ON...

AUST Business today (extract):
ENERGY GIANTS RAISE ALARM ON PRICE CAP

Woodside Energy and Shell have suspended talks with buyers to supply new gas into Australia’s east coast, blaming the Albanese government’s intervention into energy markets and warning the move could lead to shortages and gas rationing.
Woodside, which supplies 20 per cent of east coast domestic demand from Victoria’s Bass Strait, followed Shell’s dramatic move to freeze sales to customers by also pausing its own process to supply into the market.
Woodside had canvassed commercial and industrial customers to buy 50 petajoules of gas over 2024 and 2025, but said the process had now been suspended.
“Due to the uncertainty created by the government’s proposed legislation, Woodside has now suspended that process and paused all other domestic gas marketing activities while we seek to understand the implications of this intervention,” Woodside said in a statement.
“That offer was heavily oversubscribed with more than 20 buyers nominating a price they were comfortable to pay.”
The national cabinet’s sweeping market intervention has caused shock among energy producers with a combination of price caps on gas and coal and a new code of conduct that could result in a requirement for gas to be permanently sold at a reasonable price.……
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