Western Australian premier Roger Cook said on Wednesday he had been "assured" by federal Resources Minister Madeleine King that a new government policy of reserving 20% of gas output for domestic use would not harm his state's large LNG industry.
"Maddie King is a very good friend of mine, she's my local member of parliament (and) we’ve talked at length about this and she is determined to make sure that it doesn’t have an adverse impact in terms of Western Australia’s established practice,” he said at the Australian Financial Review Mining Summit in Perth.
Since Iranian strikes knocked out Qatari LNG facilities, Australia has reverted to being the world's second-largest supplier, with Western Australia accounting for close to two-thirds of that.
King on May 7 announced a national gas reservation scheme, largely designed to shore up tight east coast supply.
The scheme will begin July 2027 and apply to contracts or extensions signed after December 22 last year. However many details, including possible exemptions for some producers, are yet to be announced.
Western Australia already has its own scheme to reserve 15% of its gas for domestic use. Changes to a system it says is working well have spooked both the state Labor government and LNG export giants like Woodside Energy and Chevron.
In addition to raising the proportion of gas reserved for the domestic market, the national scheme also uses a different measure of production than the WA policy - total lifecycle production, rather than annual production.
A consultation paper released on Monday stated the Domestic Supply Obligation would operate in line with state and territory policy, without specifying how this would mesh with the Western Australian scheme.
Speaking to ABC Radio in Perth on Tuesday, King said the Western Australian scheme "will, of course, be taken into account".
Cook added on Wednesday: "We'll obviously work with them to understand what the opportunities are for Western Australia in relation to that national approach."
(Reuters)
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