In an extraordinary speech delivered at a federal parliamentary event on Thursday, Inpex chief executive Takayuki Ueda suggested Japan had been rattled by government interventions in Australia’s gas industry.
The Albanese government legislated to cap coal and gas prices for 12 months late last year while requiring producers to abide by “reasonable pricing” guidelines indefinitely…
But the laws also affected a raft of multi billion-dollar liquefied natural gas projects, including Inpex’s flagship $60 billion Ichthys development off Australia’s north-west coast. Mr Ueda said while Japan sympathised with Australian government concerns last year over the state of domestic markets, the North Asian country was worried about any potential ripples that could jeopardise its own energy security…
Amid warnings of a “deteriorating” investment climate in Australia, Mr Ueda said Canberra risked causing unintended consequences in its efforts to control the gas industry. “The consequence of these well-intentioned policies will be that the increasing energy demand in our region will be met by coal and not by natural gas,” Mr Ueda told MPs at private parliamentary function.
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