Former resources minister Martin Ferguson blasts NT Labor on gas...

Former resources minister Martin Ferguson blasts NT Labor on gas
Date
March 8, 2016 - 12:00AM
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Angela Macdonald-Smith
Angela Macdonald-Smith
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Martin Ferguson is set to lambast NT Labor for its fracking moratorium.
Martin Ferguson is set to lambast NT Labor for its fracking moratorium. Photo: Chris Pearce
Former Labor resources minister Martin Ferguson, a vocal critic of the policy hurdles for coal seam gas in NSW, is set to launch a broadside against Northern Territory Labor, blaming its moratorium on fracking for putting a new pipeline at risk and pushing the Northern Territory to the brink of "catastrophic" gas shortages.
The "NSW disease" that has all but killed off onshore gas in the state, has "infected" politicians elsewhere, with NT Labor set to do real damage to the economy through its gas policy if it wins the territory election in August, Mr Ferguson will say on Tuesday.
The support for a moratorium on fracking in the NT is undermining confidence among potential users of the new $800 million pipeline link to be built to Queensland, Paul Adams, the head of the pipeline developer Jemena, said last week. NT Chief Minister Adam Giles has blamed it for the loss of 140 jobs at explorer Pangaea Resources and for deterring drilling.
The moratorium has been proposed despite an exhaustive inquiry into fracking in the NT by former senior public servant Dr Allan Hawke, who determined the environmental risks can be managed effectively, while recommending regulatory changes.
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"If Labor wins the territory election in August – and sticks with this bad policy – it will inflict real economic harm for no environmental gain," Mr Ferguson will tell the Australian Domestic Gas Outlook conference in Sydney, according to an advance copy of his address.
He says the policy would deny NT traditional owners tens of millions of dollars in revenues, would eventually force up electricity prices in the territory, and cost more jobs.
It would also open up the NT government to claims for compensation, and put at risk hopes that NT gas will help solve NSW's gas problem by delivering gas through the North East Gas Interconnector, the pipeline to be built by Jemena.
Mr Adams, who is also to address the conference, will point to the 900 jobs to be created by the NEGI project, including 600 expected to be filled by locals. The project will have Jemena invest more than $2 million in local capacity-building initiatives,
He will also outline Jemena's ambitions to extend the new pipeline down to Wallumbilla, a gas hub west of Brisbane, opening up an eastern gateway for NT gas.
But banking on NT gas to save NSW may now be "a long shot", according to Mr Ferguson, who now chairs the advisory board for oil and gas industry association APPEA, and is head of natural resources at Seven Group Holdings.
"So much for the injection of NT gas into the eastern Australian market," he says, pointing to Jemena's warnings that the pipeline development is being slowed and its capacity may be reduced.
Mr Ferguson says blaming the start-up of the three Queensland LNG export projects for the gas problems on the east coast is a mistake given vast undeveloped reserves that could be tapped were it not for "roadblock after roadblock" in NSW and Victoria.
Were the NSW political and regulatory environment "rational", then NSW's Pilliga and Gloucester regions would be close to producing their first gas, while AGL Energy's Camden project would be growing, "not dying a slow death", Mr Ferguson says. Explorer Metgasco would be selling gas in northern NSW instead of having had to walk away from its drilling permits.
"The biggest risk to Australia's gas users is not exports. It is not perceptions of less-than-perfect market transparency," Mr Ferguson says. "It is the combination of poor policy, poor regulation and political opportunism."
He calls for political leadership and long-term thinking to drive regulatory reform, but again rejects the idea of gas reservation, saying it would "amount fo fighting over how to slice a shrinking pie".

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/ener...bor-on-gas-20160306-gnc50k.html#ixzz42IUCuaRI
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