Former West Australian premier Colin Barnett has called on Australia to develop a $5 billion-plus transcontinental pipeline from the state as a means of solving the energy crisis gripping the east coast.
Mr Barnett, who oversaw the expansion of the state’s mining and petroleum industries during his more than eight years as premier, urged the federal government and the states to revisit plans for a 1500km pipeline from WA’s northwest through to South Australia’s Cooper Basin.
Such infrastructure would open up a path for molecules from WA’s huge offshore gas reserves into the gas-hungry markets of Sydney and Melbourne, relieving the supply squeeze that has driven energy prices higher while also tackling carbon emissions.
Mr Barnett broke the public silence he has maintained since leading his government to an emphatic election defeat last month to label the present debate around energy security as “farcical”.
He also chided the federal government for its “preoccupation” with coal, described its preparedness to consider subsidising coal as “absolutely bizarre” and labelling the clean coal technology the government has been touting recently as “a myth”.
Instead, he said the government should be focusing on the gas resources already in place around the country and in WA in particular.
“With the gas discoveries that took place over the past 20 years, off the northwest of WA there is over 100 years’ supply of natural gas for Australia,” Mr Barnett said. “The emissions from a combined-cycle gas power plant are less than half the emissions from coal. I don’t know why Australia ignores that.”
The potential for a transcontinental pipeline was discussed during the 1990s when Mr Barnett was serving as the state’s resources minister, but the plan never got off the ground.
Last year Mr Barnett was critical of states on the east coast for failing to implement domestic gas reservation policies, such as the one in place in WA. Liquefied natural gas exporters in WA are required to set aside 15 per cent of their resources for domestic consumption.
“No other country in the world gives away its energy resources. It’s just crazy,” Mr Barnett told The Weekend Australian. “Any other country in the world facing an energy situation would use its own resources, and we’re not doing that. Yet we’ve got a relatively simple solution to bring large amounts of gas.”
Connecting WA’s gas regions to the larger demand centres of the east coast also would open up new development opportunities for gas discoveries, currently without a path to market.
Mr Barnett said a transcontinental pipeline could help justify the big but undeveloped fields such as the Scarborough project off WA, owned by ExxonMobil, BHP Billiton and Woodside Petroleum.
The construction of such a pipeline would be relatively simple, he said, given the flat arid terrain between WA and SA and the existing reserves in place for railways and power lines.
Such a plan would likely require early financial support from federal and state governments, he said, but would likely be self-funding over time.
Mr Barnett continues to sit in WA parliament and told The Weekend Australian he had no plans to retire just yet.
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