‘Moving the goalposts’: Inpex ramps up attack on gas policy

afr.com:

Japan’s Inpex has taken another public swipe at the Albanese government’s gas strategy, telling a conference in Darwin the country is a “global outlier” on energy policy and accusing Canberra of “moving the goal posts” on multi-billion-dollar gas investments.

Tetsu Murayama, the head of Inpex in Australia and operator of the huge Ichthys LNG venture in Darwin, compared the “outstanding” level of encouragement the company has received from successive Northern Territory governments with what is happening at the federal level.

A tanker arrives in Darwin Harbour to deliver an LNG cargo to Inpex’s Ichthys LNG export project. 

“Unfortunately, I have to say Australia is a global outlier when it comes to energy policy at the federal level,” Mr Murayama said.

“From the moment we took FID [final investment decision] on Ichthys in 2012, our mantra has been ‘don’t move the goal posts’. With the recent significant changes to the regulatory goal posts, energy companies in Australia are being impacted half-way through the game.”

Inpex is among overseas investors stunned by the many policy moves against the industry in past months, including much-strengthened emissions reduction requirements through the safeguard mechanism, price intervention in the east coast domestic market, and reforms to LNG export controls. It is also saddled with the overturning of environmental approvals for Santos’ Barossa gas project in the Timor Sea, which will supply replacement gas for its partly owned Darwin LNG.

Mr Murayama’s comments come six months after Inpex global CEO Takayuki Ueda shocked politicians in Canberra with a strongly worded criticism of the Labor government’s moves against gas, accusing Australia of “quietly quitting” its world-leading