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better, serving as a bridging fuel to the renew- What next
able revolution. McConville argued that for investors to commit
to new Australian LNG projects the government
Taking heart needed to maintain a stable and competitive tax
APPEA noted that while the fallout from regime while avoiding the risks of adopting
COVID-19 would be felt for several years, Asian interventionist gas market policies.
gas demand would continue to provide eco- His comments come just weeks after Austral-
nomic opportunities for Australia. ian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced
The body’s CEO, Andrew McConville, a number of natural gas-focused measures
pointed to the IEA’s prediction that gas demand intended to “reset” the East Coast gas market.
under STEPS would grow by 14% above 2019 While the government has said it wants
levels by 2030 and by 30% to 2040, with growth greater investment by the private sector, Morri-
concentrated in Asia. SDS, meanwhile, will see son flagged his intent in mid-September to have
Asian demand expand by 52% over 2019 levels the state fund critical domestic energy projects
to 2040, with India and China driving the surge. if investors delay too long. At the same time,
Under the latter scenario, carbon capture, use the prime minister also raised the prospect of a
and storage (CCUS), coal-to-gas switching and national gas reserve mechanism.
the rise of low-carbon gases are each expected to These efforts are all geared towards driving eco-
be key to the gas sector’s contribution in lower- nomic recovery through a gas-fed renaissance in
ing emissions. Australian manufacturing, a dream the upstream
McConville also underscored the importance has been particularly tepid over, given the rising
of Australian gas in the climate change battle, calls from domestic buyers for cheaper gas.
pointing to government estimates that the coun- The Australian industry faces an uncertain
try’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports could future, dominated by calls for both a greater reli-
help reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emis- ance on renewables over all fossil fuels as well as
sions by up to 169mn tonnes of CO2e. cheaper supplies of natural gas to help struggling
Even under the NZE2050 outlook, in which manufacturers find their feet.
global gas demand is anticipated to fall below The IEA, meanwhile, has flagged up the need
2019 levels in 2040, McConville remained for gas players to invest in scrubbing the emis-
upbeat, with growth in key Asian demand cen- sions from their production, pointing to tech-
tres still expected to provide opportunities. nologies such as CCUS.
The executive added that while the WEO One Australian developer to have appar-
highlighted seismic shifts currently underway ently heard the call already is Cooper Energy,
in the global energy market, gas remained an announcing this week that it has become
“important part of a cleaner energy future”. Australia’s first carbon-neutral domestic gas
“These outlooks are more uncertain that in producer by fully offsetting its financial year
previous outlooks, but still present opportunities 2020-2021 emissions. With commercially viable
for Australia to see a continued stream of high CCUS unavailable as yet, Australia’s producers
paying, highly skilled jobs, export dollars and may need to follow in Cooper’s footsteps if they
revenue for governments for decades,” McCo- are to weather the turbulent times that likely lie
nville said. ahead for the industry.™

Week 41 15•October•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P13