Shell Queensland boss unable to rule out future LNG export hits
Shell’s Queensland gas boss Kim Code has been unable to rule out a future hit to LNG exports, as the federal government’s gas market intervention makes waves through the sector.
Speaking from Shell’s Queensland coal seam gas fields near Chinchilla, Ms Code added the federal government’s gas code will weigh on plans to further invest in Australia, but fell short of declaring it an investment killer.
The competition watchdog and the energy market operator are forecasting gas shortfalls on the eastern seaboard in the coming years, strengthening the arm of the Commonwealth to pull the so-called “gas trigger” to divert uncontracted cargos slated for Asia to the domestic market.
Kim Code is not ruling out gas being diverted to the domestic market.
Asked what this mounting pressure means for Shell’s gas exports to customers in Asia, Ms Code, Shell’s senior vice president east Australia, did not rule out gas being diverted to the domestic network.
“That’s all got to play out in front of us. I mean, I’m not going to predict the future. It frankly depends partly on geology in many cases. So, there’s not actually an easily predictable point,” Ms Code said.
The Commonwealth’s new carbon-cutting rules are further putting pressure on London-based Shell, one of the five largest oil companies in the world, to reduce emissions from its LNG facility, one of 215 major emitters covered by the safeguard mechanism.
Ms Code said Shell uses gas from its own fields to power its LNG facility on Curtis Island in Gladstone, and is mulling electrifying parts of its LNG plant via renewable power.
Globally, Shell has committed to cut emissions from its operations – known as scope 1 and scope 2 emissions – by 50 per cent by 2030. A Dutch court ordered
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