‘It’s ridiculous’: Architect of WA policy calls for national gas reservation

The architect of Western Australia’s gas reservation policy has called for the scheme to be adopted nationally, with the worst energy crisis in decades reigniting calls for gas producers to be forced to reserve some supply for domestic use.

Former WA premier Alan Carpenter told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age it was unfathomable that the scheme he implemented in 2006, which forces 15 per cent of gas produced in the state to be reserved for local users, had not been copied in other parts of the country.

“Every other energy producing jurisdiction in the world does it. No one just allows unfettered access to their energy resources without any regard to domestic needs,” he said. “It’s ridiculous that we don’t have a policy that requires domestic gas reservation. We are a major gas exporting nation.”

The Australian Energy Market Operator this week suspended trading across the entire east coast electricity power network as a cold snap in NSW and Victoria sparked heightened demand for heating. AEMO had earlier imposed price caps on power generators, which have been squeezed by outages at ageing power stations and surging prices for the coal and gas used to generate electricity due to the Ukraine conflict.

The power crisis has reignited the debate over gas reservation policies, which force producers to set aside some gas for domestic use. Reservation is fiercely opposed by major oil and gas producers which have sold long term supply contracts to major buyers in offshore markets.

Woodside, the nation’s largest oil and gas producer would not comment on reservation, but said the crisis “has highlighted the important role gas plays in firming of power grids”.