The first delivery of natural gas from Senex Energy's Project Atlas in Queensland has been welcomed as another important milestone for Australia's growing oil and gas industry.
Natural gas from Project Atlas, near Wandoan in south-west Queensland, is being used to generate electricity by supplying CleanCo, a new state government-owned generator. CleanCo operates the combined-cycle Swanbank E gas-fired power station near Ipswich.
APPEA Chief Executive Andrew McConville congratulated Senex Energy and its partners on the supply of natural gas from this ground-breaking project.
"This is another excellent example of the oil and gas industry providing natural gas supply to domestic customers, including manufacturers to support local jobs and economic growth," Mr McConville said.
From 1 January 2020, Project Atlas will supply building products maker CSR, which has three south‑east Queensland manufacturing plants that make PGH™ bricks, Gyprock™ plasterboard and Bradford™ insulation, employing a total of 260 people.
Project Atlas - which has been supported by the Queensland Government - will also supply packaging companies Orora and O-I, which make bottles for beer, wine and non-alcoholic beverages.
"These gas supply agreements provide much-needed certainty for manufacturers and highlight further evidence of the large investment industry is making to increase the substantial flow of gas to the east coast market," Mr McConville said.
"Queensland and the state government should be congratulated for continuing to see the economic benefits that flow to communities from developing and using natural gas. Increasing supply should be the focus of government, industry and all Australian businesses that rely on sustainable gas supply.
"More natural gas supply into the domestic market makes a significant difference to the millions of homes and thousands of businesses that use gas - underpinning hundreds of thousands of jobs in Australian manufacturing and other key sectors."
Mr McConville said industry had announced billions of dollars in new investment in recent years to bring more gas into the market, supporting domestic gas consumption and export projects underpinning Australia's economic growth.
In addition to today's announcement, in the past two and a half years, there have been significant announcements from Arrow Energy, Shell Australia, Cooper Energy, Strike Energy, GLNG, Australia Pacific LNG, Origin Energy, Westside Corporation and Santos to provide new supply for eastern Australia.
