Speaking at the sidelines of the International Offshore Petroleum Regulators and Operators summit in Perth yesterday, Coleman said while the industry had the right elements in place, some areas were lagging behind some of the best practice in the world.

"Australian safety standards actually match up very well on an international basis, I think the challenge for us overall, not just in the petroleum industry but across all industry in Australia, is to bring the performance … up," he said.

"Australia's performance compared to other international best practice in a number of areas is lagging. We can and we must do better."

His comments were mirrored by Shell Australia boss Ann Pickard who told the conference the Australian oil industry needed to step up its safety in light of the number of LNG projects on the cards.

She made reference to Shell's Pearl gas-to-liquids plant in Qatar that achieved 77 million man hours without a single lost time injury.

"Australia's certainly not Qatar but if we look at the sort of numbers Australia is trying to bring into the LNG industry over the next 10 years the challenges are similar," Pickard said.

"We're going to have step up as leaders and as an industry if we're going to install a fundamental commitment to safety … and retain our licence to operate."