The Federal Government has announced its plan to increase gas extraction beyond 2050 which may result in the controversial Santos Narrabri Gas Project getting the go ahead.
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Federal Minister for Resources Madeleine King released the Future Gas Strategy last week and made special mention of the Narrabri project at the announcement, which could be bad news for farmers in the Narrabri area, as well as on the Liverpool Plains, as the government has said the state could face gas shortages by 2028 and Premier Chris Minns is calling for more domestic gas supply.
Two of the key principles of the Future Gas Strategy are that Australia remains committed to supporting global emissions reductions to reduce the impacts of climate change and will reach net zero emissions by 2050 and that new sources of gas supply are needed to meet demand.
Lock The Gate Alliance CEO Carmel Flint believes the strategy is not good news, especially for Narrabri.
"This is a pretty terrible announcement. We're totally opposed to the Future Gas Strategy as it was released last week," she said.
"What it basically does is really promotes a really reckless plan to open up new gas basins and we think it will really increase the pressure towards opening up the Narrabri gas field.
"I think the comments made by the resources minister Madeline King last week about the Narabbri gas project were really uncalled for and very problematic in terms of her basically promoting the development of that gas field when there's just widespread community opposition."
Ms Flint said new gas sources would not be required if more gas was staying in the domestic market.
"In our view, there's absolutely no need for more gas whatsoever," she said.
"Our big concern is the push to keep opening up new gas, particularly in northwest NSW when we've got lots of gas in Australia, we're just exporting it overseas.
"Since at least 2015 we've been told every year that there's going to be a gas shortfall in the next year or two and it's never come to pass.
"The main reason for that is there isn't a real gas shortfall, it's just an artificial gas demand to export our gas out of Gladstone in Queensland.
"We've had the situation where companies have been exporting gas out of Australia that should have been going into our domestic market."
A spokesperson from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water said the NSW Government has not made any decisions regarding new gas fields and the Narrabri project is awaiting a decision by Santos.
"The Narrabri Gas Project is awaiting a final investment decision from its developer, Santos," the spokesperson said. "The latest advice from Santos is that this decision is expected in 2025.
The spokesperson said gas forecasts are made by the Australian Energy Market Operator in their annual report the Gas Statement of Opportunities.
