There have been two underlying themes at this year's conference: telling the ‘story' of Australia's gas industry and critical role in the energy transition, and the importance of CCS.
Earlier in the week, Gallagher used the words ‘fight back' against activists and anti-oil and gas campaigners. Without doing so, Australia's energy industry faced an uncertain future and possible death of Australia's export industry.
Gallagher gave his industry address immediately after federal opposition leader Peter Dutton told the attendees to "fight for yourselves" and "speak up more frankly and avidly."
On CCS, Gallagher joined a chorus of industry leaders warning a lack of incentives and regulatory stability was hindering investment.
His company's 1.7 million tonne per annum Mooba CCS project, shared with Beach Energy, is due for start up next year and has been deemed eligible by the feds to recieve Australian Carbon Credit Units.
"Australia simply cannot afford to turn its back on the gas industry or to shun the opportunity of new exciting industries such as CCS and synthetic methane which have the potential to deliver the energy transition faster and at lower cost," he said in his address.
While he welcomed the government's announcement in the recent budget for a review into regulations and administrative certainty and efficiency for carbon capture and storage, it did little to encourage new CCS projects such as Bayu Undan. This is complicated given it is a dual-jurisdiction project across Australian and Timor-Leste waters. Australia has no framework for this, and does not award ACCUs to international projects run by Australian companies.
Gallagher said Australia was falling behind the US and did not have the regulatory frameworks in place to offer the CCS capacity that Japan and Korea needed as two of Australia's biggest LNG customers.
"[Japan and Korea] are now looking to Indonesia and Malaysia [for CCS investment]," he warned.
"The industry is ready to invest and we are anxious to work with the government as a matter of urgency in a process to define these opportunities so that Australia is now left behind the US, Europe, Indonesia and Malaysia in the race to build new, low-cost abated gas and other decarbonisation industries."
