Three months of wind lulls have increased demand for natural gas and lead to shortages all winter.
On Thursday morning, in an extraordinary step, the Australian Energy Market Operator issued a “risk or threat notice” for east coast gas supplies amid a looming shortfall of the fuel in southern states such as Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia…
Mr Wilkinson said the security of Australia’s east coast gas market had been getting worse for years as investment in new supplies dwindled. “The lack of investment, and some would say outright hostility to gas industry investment in the southern states has left south-east Australia closer to gas supply shortfalls,” Mr Wilkinson said. “The margin for safety continues to be eroded.”
Australia produces plentiful amounts of natural gas. From the Statistical Review of World Energy, Nat Gas production in 2023 was 151.7 billion cubic meters. Domestic consumption was only 40.1 billion m3.
The database says Australia exported 107.4 billion m3 last year as LNG. (There is small amount of missing gas, which is probably the amount consumed in pipeline operations and in chilling down the gas to LNG at the terminals.)
The problem might come down to the gas companies making a choice between selling LNG to foreign nations at a high price, or selling domestically at a lower price. There are also probably contracts that must be met to supply LNG to foreign markets, so it is not so simple of a choice between selling domestically or outside of Australia.