The economic benefit of Australia’s burgeoning coal seam gas (CSG) sector was Wednesday presented to delegates at ABARES’ Outlook 2012 conference in Canberra.
The Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association’s (APPEA) Chief Operating Officer – Eastern Region, Rick Wilkinson, released for the first time a range of 2011 industry statistics, which show:
• The CSG industry now employs 12,113 people;
• In Queensland alone, the CSG industry recruited 2,409 people in just the second half of 2011 (or 93 new people every week);
• In Queensland alone, the CSG industry last year committed capital investment at the rate of more than $30,000 per minute;
• CSG now supplies more than one third of Eastern Australia’s natural gas;
• In Queensland alone, the industry signed 398 access agreements with Queensland landholders in the last quarter of 2011 (or 4 agreements per day) and there are now 2459 such agreements in place;
• There is not one formal dispute of access between the CSG industry and a landholder in either NSW or QLD.
Mr Wilkinson said: “ The Australian oil and gas industry is going through a period of unprecedented transformation and growth .
“ Demand for clean, abundant, reliable, and affordable energy sources – both within Australia and throughout our region – is strong, and no-one expects it to wane in the foreseeable future .
“ As a result, we have in just the past few years seen LNG projects worth in excess of $180 billion commence construction in Australia, with $46 billion worth of this being derived from Queensland CSG.
“ As we continue to see jobs lost in the car-making, tourism, airline & manufacturing sectors, it is difficult to over-state the significance or importance of this investment, or the role it will play in shaping the Australian economy of the future .”
[mappress] LNG World News Staff, March 12, 2012; Image: APPEA