However, change is not happening fast enough to avert the threat of shortages of a fuel that remains widely used for heating, cooking, power and manufacturing. The speed and scale of declining production from ExxonMobil and Woodside's 50-year-old gas assets in Bass Strait, without enough new projects to replace them, have prompted fresh warnings that southern states, including Victoria and NSW, could face gas shortages in the winter. next year and the annual shortage in 2028.
“Leaving this issue unresolved makes the timely development of new energy supplies more difficult.”
Meg O'Neill, CEO of Woodside
The Albanian government's “future gas strategy”, published by Resources Minister Madeleine King this month, backs warnings from energy market operators that new supplies are needed to avoid shortages. It also acknowledges that gas will play a key role in the shift to net zero emissions because it generates fewer emissions than coal, but can still be relied on to support climate-dependent renewables.
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“These results would likely increase volatility and raise prices for households and businesses already struggling with inflationary and cost-of-living pressures,” he says. “So I'm glad the government is talking about solutions.”
However, plans to develop new gas fields in Australia often struggle to proceed due to what developers argue is ambiguity in rules governing community consultation requirements, leaving them open to legal action of ecological groups and traditional owners.
Industry leaders denounced the system as “broken” and vulnerable to exploitation by activists intent on stopping new supplies of fossil fuels. Others, however, see the slowdown in new projects as positive after years of uninterrupted growth in emissions-intensive industry and argue that oil and gas developments, by their very nature, carry serious environmental, cultural and economic risks, the which means a solid query. requirements are vital.
Labor has said it remains committed to developing reforms to streamline offshore approval requirements and will bring them back to parliament at a later date, which is not expected to fall before the next election due in May next year .
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