Woodside Santos merger, page-50

Thanks for the excellent post Brobel and welcome back.
The other thing about the export price is that it is much more certain. When doing forecasts, financiers have a much higher degree of certainty about future revenues on the export component and, therefore, a higher willingness to lend. The same cannot be said for the domestic market, where there is much greater uncertainty not only about current prices but also future prices e.g. if both STX and MIN build large gas plants, supply may exceed demand in the future, generating downside risk - hence the greater reluctance of financiers to provide capital without the certainty that access to export markets provides.
I see a 50:50 policy as an effective compromise between providing gas companies with the certainty they need to invest and ensuring plentiful supplies of domestic gas to WA consumers.