The 200-strong conference, into its fourth year in Perth, is primarily a mining event but as Latin America progresses its own gas plans via Argentina's enormous Vaca Muerta shale and other developments Johnston believes Western Australian LNG know-how could be a boon. 

There are few Australian explorers in Latin America with Karoon Energy, which has offshore holdings in Peru in a joint venture with Tullow and in Brazil's prolific Santos Basin, a rare exception, but Johnston suggests it is experience and service the state can offer.

 "As a leading jurisdiction in responsible resource development, WA is able to share its skills and expertise to assist other countries," his speech of yesterday said.

 "The oil and gas sector also provides many opportunities for collaboration."

 The state, which exports two thirds of Australia's LNG capacity of close to 80 million tonnes a year, already has plans to become a support and service hub similar to Houston or Aberdeen, and wants to capitalise further on its growing LNG experience.

 "Latin American can benefit from WA's expert petroleum workforce, which has world-class experience in subsea exploration and production technologies, marine services, petroleum-related research, front-end engineering and design, and geophysical surveying," he said.

 "The petroleum sector was the second most valuable sector in 2018, achieving a record value of $35.3 billion, an increase of 63% on 2017."