Australians will pay more if Albanese fast-tracks fossil fuel projects, former oil and gas leaders warn | Fossil fuels
Former oil and gas industry executives, including senior executives from BP and Shell, are warning the Albanian government that Australians risk price shocks and higher costs if it prioritizes fossil fuel development in response to the global energy crisis.
Sixteen former executives and professionals – who have worked for companies including Woodside, Inpex, Exxon Mobil and Esso – have urged the government to reject calls for accelerated gas and coal extraction, arguing it would do nothing to improve the country’s liquid fuel security.
They said Australia’s limited potential oil reserves – such as the Taroom Trough, championed by the Queensland LNP government – would likely offer less than a year’s supply even if fully exploited.
“[They] “The speculative resources stirred up by some would take a decade or more to develop and would temporarily provide only a fraction of our energy needs.”
Signatories to the statement included the former managing director of BP Australia.
Greg Bourne, former BP vice-president of global projects, Russell Smith, and Bernard Wheelahan, former director of Shell Australia, chairman of Shell Venezuela and chairman of the lobby group Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (now known as the Australian Energy Producers).
They said Australia should support policies that “accelerate the deployment of renewable energy, modernize the grid and support large-scale electrification” to minimize reliance on oil. “Every electric vehicle on the road, electric vehicle in a mine, and battery replacing a diesel generator frees up diesel fuel for the rest – permanently,” they said.
Their intervention comes as the federal government plans to broaden its support for securing fuel supplies in the next federal budget and as the Federal Coalition and gas lobby call for faster approvals for fossil fuel projects.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Wednesday he would not damage existing gas export contracts by introducing a 25% gas export tax, saying he was focused on maintaining relationships with Asian countries that buy Australian gas and supply liquid fossil fuels. He dismissed a campaign for a gas tax that polls show has strong community support, calling it dishonest and populist.
Former oil and gas executives said expanding drilling and quickly approving new fossil fuel projects in response to Iran’s war-driven fuel crisis “may seem, at first glance, like easy options”, but risked locking Australia into outdated infrastructure and exposing households to “continued price shocks”.
They said some gas would still be needed, including to “firm up” renewable energy production, but that Australia already had enough to meet future demand. “Fossil fuel lobbying has slowed the transition from petro-state to electro-state for decades, at great cost to Australians. This must not be allowed to happen again.”
Bourne, now director of the Climate Council, said signatories to the declaration had experience in the oil and gas sectors, including management, drilling, geology and finance.
He said they had worked extensively with oil and gas companies when those companies were considering a shift from fossil fuels to broader energy interests, including clean investments, as they “began to see climate change as an important and strategic issue that needed to be managed.” Those plans have since been abandoned in many cases, he said.
That statement was echoed Thursday in an unrelated speech by the president of the federal government agency, the Climate Change Authority, Matt Kean. He told a Committee for Economic Development of Australia event in Melbourne that calls for more drilling for fossil fuels during an oil crisis defied logic.
“It’s like paying off a gambling debt by going back down to the casino. It doesn’t make any sense,” he said.
