Print this pageAbstract: Australia as Natural Gas Exporter
Australia's population is concentrated in the southeastern quadrant of the continent, where the cities are supplied with natural gas delivered by pipeline from central Australia or offshore Victoria. Known reserves of gas in these areas are unlikely to continue to meet full market growth to the turn of the century.
Perth, the only population center in the southwest, is supplied from sources onshore Western Australia which are likely to be exhausted in the mid-1980s. The Perth market is too small and too distant to justify development of the deep-water, far offshore, gas fields of northwest Australia and any further requirement in the southeast of the country is too far in the future to provide a timely additional load. The Australian government has therefore given permission for exports from the Rankin trend in conjunction with supply to Perth.
The Woodside group proposes to develop first the large (8.6 Tcf recoverable) North Rankin field. Gas is scheduled ashore in 1984 with anticipated sales of 370 MMcf/day pipeline-quality gas into the west Australian market, and LNG exports of up to 6.5 million MT/year. The natural markets for the LNG appear to be Japan and the west coast of the United States.
Approval for export from Rankin trend was granted because of specific circumstances. However, the general question remains: should Australia export future discoveries of natural gas? Because of long lead times and high costs in petroleum exploration and development, potential explorers need an answer to this question before they explore; an answer after the event is too late.
The distribution of population in Australia provides a key. In the populated southeastern quadrant where markets are potentially available in the 1990s and beyond, all gas discovered should be reserved for local use, subject only to exception on a case by case basis to meet the special needs of individual projects. In the balance of the continent, where population is sparse and there is negligible local market, automatic permission to export at least half of any gas discovered should provide the necessary incentive for continued exploration.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90962©1978 AAPG 2nd Circum-Pacific Energy and Minerals Resource Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii