*Check against delivery*
Thanks very much Belinda.
To Todd, Robin, my Parliamentary colleagues, ladies and gentlemen –
Can I firstly say I am looking forward to this presentation.
I’ve got my eye on the time to return to Parliament House given the current minority status of our Government at the moment and our inability to actually get pairs.
But look today is very important because LNG is exceptionally important to Australia’s future.
Both from a clean energy perspective and I might say from the point of view of our overall energy security.
And ConocoPhillips is very much a part of Australia’s future.
It is in that context that I address you today and remind you of the importance of the LNG sector to Australia.
Last year our exports totalled nearly $8 billion.
Australia being the fourth-largest LNG exporter.
Our LNG production capacity is now almost 20 million tonnes per annum.
The start of exports from Woodside’s Pluto project in the second half of this year will add another four million tonnes per annum.
Within five years, we expect to climb further up the ladder with exports exceeding 50 million tonnes.
And that effectively means that only Qatar will be exporting more LNG than Australia.
This is an issue that I discussed with International Energy Agency representatives earlier this morning.
As Todd also referred to this morning, this growth is very much underpinned by long-term contracts similar to the ones announced late last week with Sinopec with respect to the coal seam methane potential of central Queensland.
Those contracts are very important because they are very clear public demonstrations of the confidence customers have in Australia’s capacity, our reputation as a reliable supplier and the long-term demand for energy in the region in which we live.
ConocoPhillips is investing in Australia.
That’s why ConocoPhillips is on the eve of another very, very substantial investment, important to the company internationally but very important to Australia domestically.
For example, over the last three months just in the coal seam methane sector in Australia alone through two projects there have been new investment decisions of $31 billion.
And there clearly is one coming through the pipeline at the moment with respect to ConocoPhillips as it moves closer to FID.
So effectively in coal seam methane in a period of less than twelve months we are probably going to have at least $50 billion in investment in a whole new industry here in Australia.
We as a nation have achieved the first ever LNG export contracts out of coal seam methane as a result of the leadership of companies such as ConocoPhillips, British Gas, Santos and a whole range of other international partners.
But this is not just about energy security for nations such as Australia and our major trading partners.
Historically Japan was a foundation investor in Australia.
We’ve got new long term contractual opportunities obviously with China.
In the last twelve months we have also achieved our first long term contracts with India and Korea.
Korea historically bought on the spot market but they have now signed up to long term contractual opportunities.
One of the reasons is because of the global clean energy debate which Todd touched on and which I might say is occurring in Australia too as we establish a price on carbon side by side with the Renewable Energy Target.
The early growth in clean energy is actually going to be gas and I might say wind.
And that speaks for itself because LNG actually lowers the carbon intensity of energy.
With estimates that for every tonne of CO2 emitted in the production of LNG in Australia, at least four tonnes of CO2 emissions in customer countries are avoided when LNG is used to displace coal-fired power generation.
Just think about the importance of that figure when you look at a growing economy such as China.
You also think about the potential growth in a place such as India.
We, through producing LNG, are making a substantial impact in growing economies such as China and India, and well-established economies such as Korea, in reducing CO2 emissions.
That is very much part of our focus in terms of attracting investment to what is exceptionally important also to Australia’s economic prosperity.
With respect to the issue of the presentation today I ask you to pay close attention to it.
Because it also speaks volumes about why we should continue to attract investment in Australia.
We are exceptionally well placed, that is why I welcome the ongoing exploration activities of ConocoPhillips in the Browse and Bonaparte basins.
It’s not just about the new opportunities on the East Coast of Australia, and I might say the single train that actually exists in Darwin at the moment, but I also hope to see in the next twelve months a further final investment decision in Darwin which will add to that single train.
That is the Inpex opportunity, a joint venture between the Japanese, and I might say Total.
When that investment is achieved that will represent the single biggest investment by the French in Australia in our history.
So right across the spectrum we are attracting new investment for a sector which is going to be very important for our own economic prosperity but also very important internationally in the clean energy debate.
The development of these reserves such as in the Browse and the Bonaparte basins, and I might say on the East Coast of Australia, also presents us as a nation with huge responsibilities.
That goes to the social licence to operate in Australian waters and onshore in terms of what is an exceptionally important industry in Australia.
This industry is now creating a wealth of wonderful economic opportunities for Australians.
It is a high wage sector.
It’s also going to create additional training opportunities for young Australians wanting to pursue a career in a well-established international industry.
But the events of Macondo in the Gulf of Mexico and also Montara in our own waters have reinforced our need as a nation to be vigilant about our social licence responsibilities.
And that’s why I now have three reports which re-enforce to me, as the Federal Minister responsible for this industry, that we must strengthen our regulatory regime in terms of the need to establish a single national regulator.
I largely have support from industry, and all state and territory governments with the exception of Western Australia at the moment.
But the Macondo and Montara reports in association with two other reports that I have received since I became Minister, strengthen my resolve that this is a debate that we must have.
This is about regulatory reform that re-establishes and strengthens our social licence to operate in the safest possible manner from an environmental point of view and a health and safety point of view.
I simply say that those issues are inseparable.
If you actually have an accident not only does it endanger the health and safety of Australian workers it also endangers the environment.
Hence establishing that single national regulator sends a very sound message to the Australian community that we have the capacity and commitment to actually pursue the expansion of this industry in the safest environmental way, and in the safest way from the point of view of protecting Australian workers.
There is no alternative and I look forward to actually taking this debate forward over the next six to twelve months, because this debate is important to the international community from a clean energy point of view, it’s also exceptionally important to Australia from an investment point of view, as I briefly referred to today, and I might say from the point of view of our economic capacity in the 21st century.
Conclusion
So ladies and gentlemen can I simply say to ConocoPhillips, thank you for the presentation today.
And simply say also, we’re appreciative of your commitment to Australia, re-enforced not only today but also when I met with ConocoPhillips’ executive leadership team in Houston a couple of weeks ago where they took me through, on behalf of the Australian community, their investment horizons and their respect for Australia as a long term reliable supplier of a clean energy product, but also from a sovereign risk point of view - a nation second to none.
Thank you for the opportunity to address you today.