Category: News

24 April 2023.

The outgoing and outspoken Japanese ambassador to Australia, Shingo Yamagami, has warned in a departure interview that “sover- eign risk” is now an active concern among Japan’s corporates and energy companies which fear the reliability of Australia as an energy supplier. “There shouldn’t be any mis- understanding as to the depths of concern held by Japanese companies because on repeated occasions those concerns have been conveyed to the Australian government.” the ambassador told The Australian.

STRIKE Energy has folded, accepting Hancock Energy’s competing cash offer for its 26% holding of Warrego Energy and jettisoning its own attempted all paper takeover of its West Erregulla gas field partner. The two have been competing for control of Warrego and its 50% share of the onshore Perth Basin field since November.

RECRUITMENT for more than 370 jobs, new investment and future contracts related to Queensland’s $1bn Atlas expansion project – aimed at boosting east coast supplies – will be put on ice until the outcome of the Albanese government’s consultation on its new gas price cap rules. Senex Energy, which is jointly owned by South Korean giant POSCO International and Gina Rinehart ’s Hancock group, announced the decision on its website, in response to the passing of the energy price relief bill earlier this month. New laws passed by the Albanese government “that could arbitrarily dictate investment returns” for gas producers puts its investment at risk and would result in less gas, electricity shortages, fewer jobs and weaker regional communities that rely on the resources sector, Senex warned.

Energy major Senex Energy has warned that the federal government’s cap on gas prices placed its A$1-billion expansion plans at risk. "While Senex supports measures to provide relief to Australian households and businesses from rising energy prices, this legislation goes much further and now challenges the commercial rationale for investing in future gas supply projects because the company can now be required to accept an arbitrary return determined by others, and after the investment is made.

Future gas and LNG projects valued at $32bn are under threat of having investment stalled or pulled under the Albanese government’s “hostile attitude to Australia’s resources sector” after the Gina Rinehart-backed Senex paused its $1bn Surat Basin expansion. Senex has left open the possibility of returning to the $1bn expansion if the federal government rethinks its gas industry plans. However, it has paused recruitment and spending on long lead items “pending the outcome of the Albanese government’s mandatory code of conduct consultation process” on February 7.