The World Risk Survey 2007, based on a detailed questionnaire sent to senior mining executives, has found Australia has become a much riskier place for mining companies over the past year, with the country dropping to eighth place, its lowest rating in the 15-year history of the report.

While the survey questioned the mining community, the issues resonate with the petroleum sector. The increase in risk facing resources companies in Australia was identified as involving land access and red tape, infrastructure issues with rail and ports in Western Australia and Queensland, green tape, and uncertainty about uranium mining.

Western Australia in particular was seen as a negative influence, pulling the entire country down due to layers of red and green tape.

Woodside Petroleum’s Pluto project faced more than 400 government approvals before it was signed off last month. The Chevron-operated Gorgon project’s status is still unclear, and Inpex has warned that its Ichthys project has a relatively narrow window of opportunity and an overly drawn-out approvals process or multiple appeals against approvals granted could see the development failing to get off the ground.

Speaking at this year’s SEAAOC conference in Darwin on May 31, Federal Industry and Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane said Australian jurisdiction needed to make approvals processes timelier.

“Buyers of Australian LNG do have other options. They can buy their gas from other countries or they can opt for nuclear energy.”

While the minister did not name any state in his speech, it was clear he was referring to Western Australia.

Macfarlane told Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum energy ministers, who met in Darwin earlier that week, that Australia’s plans to quadruple LNG production by the end of the next decade were being threatened by a very slow process in getting environmental approvals in WA.

He said Australia was in an excellent position to meet the projected strong future demand for LNG in Asia and North America, but he feared LNG operators were not moving quickly enough on their projects.

"If we don't go hard and if we don't go now, future customers could leapfrog LNG and go straight to nuclear," he said.

"We want to see companies proceeding as quickly as possible. It's important to get in before someone else gets in front of you."

In 2005-06 Australia exported 12.4 million tonnes of LNG worth $4.4 billion, during which time it overtook Malaysia to become the second largest exporter to Japan.

This figure would increase four-fold to more than 60 million tonnes per annum within the next decade if proposed projects Pluto, Gorgon, Browse, Ichthys, Pilbara and Darwin phase two, went ahead, according to Macfarlane.

But ResourcesLaw International consultancy head Bob Pritchard told this year's Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association conference that no new LNG projects had been approved worldwide in 2006 or so far this year.

"The development of LNG projects in Australia is in danger of faltering," Pritchard said.

"Their scale, their escalating cost and their technical complexity make them easy prey for a wide range of opportunists, opponents and perfectionists."

Several speakers at APPEA said governments must provide more support to LNG developments, particularly by streamlining and relaxing state and federal regulatory approvals.

But there may be no easy answer. WA’s Department of Industry and Resources has lost many experienced staffers to better paid mining and petroleum sector jobs. DOIR is now look at employing people on a contract basis to deal with a backlog of paperwork