The Conservation Council of Western Australia (CCWA) said it was astounding that the state government had been effectively held to ransom by Woodside to increase its gas export capacity.
Woodside has inked a new deal with the WA Labor government to export nearly three-million tonnes more LNG in exchange for selling additional gas into the domestic market. However, its Pluto project will still provide less than the 15% of production most offshore gas producers are required to supply to the domestic market.
CCWA Executive Director Matt Roberts labelled the decision as “another example of a government beholden to corporate interests.”
“Premier Roger Cook has said previously the company’s social licence was reliant on it properly supplying the people of WA with gas. Despite this new agreement, Woodside still isn’t doing that — but its profits will increase,” Mr Roberts said.
“We see time and again Woodside bullying the federal and state governments, and our politicians seem powerless to stand up to them.
“Offshore gas producers in Western Australia are meant to provide 15% of production to the domestic market. Woodside’s Pluto project has consistently provided less than 3%.
“For 20 years, Woodside has taken advantage of an informal agreement that's allowed it to consistently shirk its responsibility to supply gas from Pluto to the domestic market.
“It shouldn’t take the state government appeasing Woodside’s desire to export more climate-warming fossil gas for the company to give a tiny bit more to the domestic market — still much less than the 15% mandated by the reservation policy.
“WA has largely avoided the gas market chaos we’ve seen in the eastern states through our domestic gas reservation policy. But gas companies like Woodside are making a concerted effort to undermine that policy — and its Western Australian homes and businesses who will pay in their energy bills.
“We don’t have a domestic gas supply issue. We have a gas export problem, and this agreement epitomises that fact.
"More fossil gas exports from WA will make climate change worse and cause natural disasters around the world. For Western Australians to be safe from climate impacts and protected from the chaos of global fossil fuel markets, our government should prioritise the renewable transition and make sure big gas producers make fair contributions along the way.”
Large industrial gas users and the government have continued to put Woodside under pressure for the lack of domestic gas from the Pluto project.
“This announcement happens when we are seeing profits skyrocketing off the back of a war that has a human cost and is impacting the cost of living of ordinary Australians. We are backing the calls for a 25% tax on all LNG exports.”
ENDS
Media contact: John Cooke – 0433 679 780