The Australian oil and gas industry's focus on the safe and sustainable development of the nation's natural resources puts Australia in a strong position to meet the world's growing energy needs - while incorporating a technology-driven strategy to curb emissions and address the risk of climate change.
In lodging its submission to the Technology Investment Roadmap Discussion Paper, APPEA Chief Executive Andrew McConville said natural gas has an essential role to play in reducing emissions.
"Locally, natural gas is a cleaner fuel and can see the emissions intensity of electricity generation fall, particularly on the east coast. Gas-fired generators can be rapidly started making them complementary with intermittent renewable energy," Mr McConville said.
"Alongside this opportunity at home, exporting natural gas as LNG will allow our Asian trading partners to reduce the emissions from their economies."
As the Discussion Paper notes on page 29:
Flexible gas capacity will continue to play a crucial role in supporting variable renewable energy, alongside continuing growth in energy storage, demand management and innovative grid technologies as alternatives.
The Discussion Paper notes on page 28:
As the world's largest exporter of LNG, Australia will continue to capitalise on this important low emissions export opportunity. Some of our key trading partners, including Japan and South Korea, have indicated that LNG will play an important role in decarbonising their electricity systems. LNG represents a continuing export opportunity for Australia.
APPEA's submission to the Discussion Paper focusses on two technologies - greenhouse gas storage and hydrogen - as technologies that can achieve large-scale abatement, and provide a large scale economic opportunity for Australia. Both are areas where Australia's existing comparative advantage and experience in natural gas development and export provides significant opportunities for the further development of these technologies.
Accompanying the APPEA submission is a new report, Industry Action on Emissions Reduction, that highlights through a series of case studies the range of the practical actions and initiatives undertaken by the oil and gas industry to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. These actions encompass the entire oil and gas exploration and production life cycle.
"APPEA looks forward to its ongoing participation in the development of the Roadmap and consultation ahead of the release of the first Low Emissions Technology Statement later in 2020," Mr McConville said.
Read the fact sheets on the gas industry's role in emissions reduction:
