The Western Australian government has lifted a ban preventing onshore gas producers from exporting any of their gas, a move conservationists say will drive up greenhouse gas emissions.
To encourage more gas development, onshore gas producers in the state will now be allowed to export up to 20% of their gas until 2030, the government announced on Thursday.
The former premier Mark McGowan introduced the ban for onshore producers in 2020 but exempted one project, the large Waitsia plant part-owned by Beach Energy, which could export half its gas.
A policy to reserve 15% of offshore gas for the domestic market remains in place.
The current WA premier, Roger Cook, said the state needed “a secure supply of gas as firming fuel in our system and to help us to become a global renewable energy powerhouse”.
The policy update would provide certainty for gas producers and users, he said, and encourage new onshore gas projects.
Jess Beckerling, the executive director of the Conservation Council of WA, said the decision ignored a parliamentary inquiry recommendation that onshore gas exports should be banned unless the domestic market was adequately supplied.
“WA’s gas industry is driving up domestic and global emissions at a time when they need to be rapidly reducing,” Beckerling said.
“Gas is not a transition fuel, it’s a fossil fuel that is diverting investment away from renewable energy. There is no future with gas.”
Rod Campbell, the research director at progressive thinktank the Australia Institute, suggested the government was bowing to pressure from producers to incentivise new projects. “The barbarians are at the gates of the WA domestic gas market and the WA government is throwing them the keys.”
The institute said its as yet unpublished report on WA gas policy – seen by Guardian Australia – had been sent earlier in September to all state MPs, saying almost 90% of the state’s gas was already used for the liquefied natural gas (LNG) export industry.
Campbell and Beckerling both said Thursday’s changes would benefit fossil fuel giant Woodside, which was trying to secure more gas for its export projects in the North West shelf.
Campbell said: “This is the east coast gas policy mess all over again,” referring to concerns about gas supply in eastern states.
He said the move, in more closely linking domestic and export markets, was “a disaster for Western Australian gas users”.
“It also benefits gas companies that would rather sell WA’s domestic onshore gas to Woodside than Western Australians,” Campbell said.
“Reducing gas exports and reducing WA’s own use of gas would be the most responsible path, both economically and environmentally.”
