Australia will ‘always be’ reliable supplier of gas to Japan
Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King says Australia will remain a reliable exporter of gas to Japan, amid LNG supply concerns as Australia transitions to net zero by 2050.
After the former head of one of Japan’s biggest energy companies warned any disruption to the supply of LNG would have a “huge impact” on millions of customers, Ms King moved to reassure one of the country’s most important trade partners it was business as usual.
Japan is one of the major customers of the $80 billion LNG export industry centred on Curtis Island in Queensland.
“Japanese investment helped build the Australian resources sector that has made our country so strong,” a spokesman for Ms King said on Friday.
“This relationship is not only crucial to the economic health of our nation, but to millions of people throughout Asia who rely on Australian resources to build their cities, heat their homes and help produce their food. Australia is a reliable supplier of energy to Japan and always will be.”
The spokesman for Ms King said there continued to be strong foreign investment in Australia’s oil and gas sector.
In August, two big Japanese investors struck a $US500 million ($763 million) deal to buy into Woodside Energy’s $16.5 billion Scarborough LNG project in Western Australia.
On Friday, former Tokyo Gas chairman Michiaki Hirose said Australian LNG was vital to keeping the lights on in large parts of Tokyo.
“Tokyo Gas currently has 12 million users, mainly in the Tokyo metropolitan area, and more than half of them are supplied by LNG import from Australia,” Mr Hirose, who is now a special adviser to the company, told The Australian Financial Review.
“So, if there is a problem with the supply from Australia, it will have a huge impact on
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