Exporters forced to reserve gas for domestic market
Australia’s major exporters will have to allocate up to a quarter of their gas to the domestic market under the national reservation scheme.
Exporters will need to allocate 15 to 25 percent of gas production to the domestic market, with the exact rate to be determined after consultation.
The federal Energy Minister said on Monday that the plan was designed to ease projected shortages in domestic gas supplies and put downward pressure on prices.
“The majority of Australians think that Australians should have first rights to gas under Australian soil and Australian waters, and that gas should be available to Australians at reasonable prices,” Chris Bowen told reporters in Canberra.
“The Australians are right about this.”
The booking regime will come into effect immediately but will only apply to new contracts.
Western Australia has long had a gas reservation scheme and Mr Bowen’s announcement will bring a similar policy to the east coast.
Industry Minister Tim Ayres said safe and affordable gas supplies were critical to keeping Australian manufacturing firms afloat.
“Our government supports heavy industry to decarbonise as much as possible, but not every plant can do this and some cannot use gas as an irreplaceable raw material,” he said.
“This is one of the reasons why we introduced the domestic gas reservation program.”
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