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Good evening,
Thank you for the opportunity to be with you this evening.
This is not the first speech I have delivered on coal-to-liquids technology.
As many of you may know, as both the Minister for Resources and Energy - and previously as the opposition spokesman for this portfolio - I have said that I regard your industry as the key to securing Australia's energy future.
Energy security is absolutely critical to Australia's economic prosperity and I believe coal-to-liquids and gas-to-liquids will play a major role in Australia's energy future.
And I am not the first Labor Resources Minister to hold that view.
Paul Keating, as a former Resources Minister, was a great advocate of CTL and GTL technologies more than a quarter of a century ago.
Back then and even as recently as a few years ago there was a lot of scepticism about CTL and GTL.
Today things are different.
The industry is real - and taking off - and ultra clean diesel is in the global marketplace.
The product is becoming highly sought after.
GTL plants in Qatar and Malaysia are supplying significant markets in Europe and Thailand with Shell selling GTL diesel blends to over 3000 retail sites.
South Africa has had CTL for over 50 years and China is currently constructing its first plant.
And now - CTL is closer to being real, right here in Queensland at Chinchilla.
This is a very exciting development at the cutting edge of energy science and technology, and I wish you every success.
With only about 12 years known oil reserves remaining at today's production and consumption rates, last year Australia had an $18.3 billion trade deficit in oil and condensate, which will continue to grow as production declines.
This is why we have to open up more oil frontiers but also continue to develop the potential of alternative fuels. Australia today is oil poor but gas and coal rich.
When it comes to coal, we have over 500 years of known reserves.
That is why it is so important for us to get low emissions coal technology right and to look at converting some of our gas and coal to transport fuels like clean diesel.
Without turning our minds to the future, we will become increasingly reliant on oil imports from unstable parts of the world, producing about 60 per cent of our needs by 2014.
It is only with domestic oil production and new fuels industries like coal to liquids that we can protect ourselves from global oil supply shocks in the future.
Australia needs a new generation of nation building industries and infrastructure - capitalising on our resource strengths and our competitive advantages, and unlocking their wealth for the Australian people.
And there is no better place to focus today than on our vast coal resources to enhance our export base and secure Australia's future fuel security at a time when consumers have never been more concerned about high petrol prices and increasing reliance on the Middle East.
Ladies and gentlemen, the coming years will present enormous energy security challenges for Australia.
Global instability and rising energy demand make energy security planning more complicated than ever.
I congratulate Linc on its achievement in demonstrating CTL in association with underground coal gasification and wish you every success for the future.
Thank you.