Liquefied natural gas in Queensland - where will the gas come from?

Image source: Parliamentary Library,
source data courtesy of Geoscience Australia

The production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Australia has become an important export industry. Sales from three existing LNG projects (the North West Shelf, Darwin LNG and Pluto LNG) earned $14.3 billion in export revenue in 2012-13, according to the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE). Increased global demand for gas is driving investment in Australia to open new LNG projects, exploiting gas resources offshore from Western Australia and the Northern Territory. In addition, onshore coal seam gas (CSG) resources will be used to develop at least three (and possibly up to seven) new LNG projects at Gladstone, in Queensland – but where will all the gas come from?

Western Australia’s gas hopes float away

A liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker.
Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Last week, Woodside Petroleum confirmed that it was planning to develop its Browse gas field off northwest Western Australia using technology that allows processing at sea. This followed an April announcement that it would not pursue earlier plans to build a processing plant onshore at James Price Point in the Kimberley, which had ignited significant controversy. The Premier of Western Australia, Colin Barnett, reportedly expressed disappointment over the news, citing the loss of jobs associated with an onshore project. But what else does Western Australia stand to lose with floating LNG?