PERTH (miningweekly.com) - The Western Australian Chamber of Minerals and Energy (CME) on Wednesday welcomed Defence Minister Stephen Smith’s defence force posture review announcement.

The review would address a range of security factors but one of the key issues would be energy security.

Smith announced that Australia might increase its defence presence in the north-west and north of Australia to protect oil and gas infrastructure off the coast of Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

“That petroleum resources belt will become particularly important to Australia's domestic energy use in the forthcoming period, in addition to being a key export element of Australia's export arrangements,” the Minister said.

The CME said that a greater defence presence in the north-west was “worthy of review.

“CME believes there may be a case for a greater defence presence to protect strategic infrastructure both on and offshore, including oil and gas platforms, port infrastructure and shipping lines in the North West,” director Damien Callachor said.

He added that the strategic importance of the north-west would continue to grow with the demand from China and India for Western Australia’s minerals and energy products.

“Oil and gas platforms and pipelines of the north-west shelf provide the vast majority of Western Australia’s energy needs, and the region itself is responsible for more than A$70-billion of Australia’s production and export value of minerals and energy.”

Callachor added that safeguarding the energy supply for domestic markets was also critical.

“There are currently ten new oil and gas projects being developed off the north-west coast, with a total investment value of around A$119-billion, with over 15 000 new jobs created through the required construction workforce,” said Callachor.

He added that the CME would make a submission to the inquiry as part of the development of the review.

Smith said that the results from the review would assist in providing a strategic context for the next scheduled Defence White Paper, which was due in the first quarter of 2014.