new incentives....maybe

Hi all

Below is an extract of the transcript from an interview with Martin Ferguson on the Insiders ABC on 27Apr providing some food for thought.

As you can see that the Government are quite concerned about securing energy needs for the future and have increased the areas proclaimed by Australia as territorial waters.

The interesting bit was lack of wells drilled and providing incentives. What he didn't say is that whether it will apply to all explorers or those who explore in te new areas.

Maybe something to watch.

Cheers
BW

BARRIE CASSIDY: Do these new areas make a big different, though? Have we got around to comprehensively exploring the vast sea bed that we already control?

MARTIN FERGUSON: When you Australia to places such as the Gulf of Mexico, we have hardly explored. The number of wells drilled are actually very small in number, one of my responsibilities in terms of the energy security is to try and make sure we bring on development in Australia, rather than our resources being stranded, that's why in Western Australia at the moment we are clearly - I support more aggressively than the previous government - pursuing our requirement to actually bring on fields that are actually commercial in nature, use it or lose it.

BARRIE CASSIDY: But in the end, will it take tax incentives to get people to go out and do this?

MARTIN FERGUSON: There are a range of incentives that we're going to think through. We've already got a commitment from the last election to a flow-through share scheme, and my department is already consulting industry. But this is bigger than flow-through share schemes, this is about incentives because deep sea exploration is very expensive, so we've got to make sure we've got a secure investment environment, and over time we will have to consider our incentives.