Energy-intensive industry on the east coast faces “hell”, with most companies poised to renegotiate their gas contracts in the coming 18 months just as prices have reportedly more than tripled as demand outstrips supply.
shortfall of 56 petajoules in 2023, equivalent to about 10 per cent of next year’s forecast demand of 571 petajoules. A spokeswoman for Shell, which operates the Queensland Curtis Gas venture, one of the three LNG exporters in Queensland, said the high gas prices were domestically driven, and the major exporter pumped all it could into the system.“QCG had one export train on maintenance and shut down another half-train, diverting as much as possible to the domestic market subject to pipeline constraints,” she said.
Andrew Richards, the head of the Energy Users Association of Australia lobby, which represents large energy users such as Wesfarmers and Alcoa, is calling for a price trigger to be considered in the Commonwealth’s ongoing review of the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism.