East coast gas commitments fail to ease shortfall worries
Producers of gas on the east coast have so far declared they have about between 188 and 237 petajoules of uncontracted gas for sale over the next two years, but the disclosure has failed to eliminate worries about declining supply that could mean shortages next winter.
Woodside Energy, Shell and Santos were among at least six companies that on Monday published the volume of uncommitted gas they have available over the next 24 months, as required under the deadline given in the Albanese government’s new code of conduct for producers in the eastern states.
Gas producers have made commitments to supply gas to the domestic market. Bloomberg
The figures are being watched with interest in the market as producers look to see what volumes their rivals declare, and as buyers contemplate how they use the information to gain leverage in contract negotiations.
East coast domestic gas demand – excluding LNG for export – is about 550 PJ and government ministers said in June that producers had tentatively offered supply of at least 260 PJ out to 2027 that would reduce the risk of shortfalls as assessed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Australian Energy Market Operator.
“Those disclosures will be of great tactical interest to individual buyers and sellers, but it will be a little while before they tell us much about the market as a whole,” said Tennant Reed, director, climate change and energy at Ai Group.
“It will take everybody a bit of time to put all these pieces together. The government and the ACCC [Australian Competition and Consumer Commission] will be in a better position than the rest of us at least at first.”
The figures do not give a whole picture of the market, because it remains unclear how
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