New South Wales Needs to Encourage Coal Seam Gas

Coal seam gas industry needs to be encouraged to grow in New South Wales in response to gas retailers requesting price rises of between 15.9 and 20.3 per cent, Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) quotes the new Energy and Resources Minister, Anthony Roberts, as saying.

Roberts said price submissions made by AGL, Origin Energy and ActewAGL to the state's pricing authority, the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal, would add $3 to $4 to a weekly gas bill, reports SMH.

He said the increases could be attributed to the carbon tax and pressures on the domestic gas market.

"The importance of growing the natural gas industry in NSW is fundamental to this state's future economic viability but also [to] driving the prices of gas down where we can through increase of supply," Roberts said.

According to SMH, the minister pointed that since NSW produced only 5% of its gas needs the state is at the mercy of Commonwealth or other domestic market places and as well as international market forces.

"It is not sustainable," he said.

He said Australia was the only country that did not have a domestic reservation policy for its gas supply to ensure that the bulk of the supply was not exported to other countries.

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