Australia to restrict gas exports as energy crisis bites

SYDNEY: Australia will enforce export restrictions on major gas producers, the prime minister said yesterday, to shore up domestic supply as a growing energy crisis sees power prices rise and blackouts more common.

The country is expected to surpass Qatar as the world’s largest liquid natural gas producer by 2020 – with Japan, China and South Korea key buyers. But booming export demands have left it short of local supplies.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said exporters were dipping into domestic reserves to fulfil foreign contracts and intervention was needed to curtail “dramatically higher prices” paid in Australia.

“It is ridiculous for us to be on the edge of becoming the largest LNG exporter in the world and not have enough gas for our businesses, for our households, for industries, great industries like this here in Australia,” he said at a manufacturing plant in Queensland.

The move – which from July 1 will allow the government to put export controls on producers to ensure they put more into the domestic market than they take out – was a “temporary measure” until Australia could unlock more reserves, he added.

Turnbull accused state governments, who in some instances have banned gas production on environmental grounds, of “putting the energy sector and manufacturing at risk”. – AFP