PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania have been named among the ten least attractive destinations for oil and gas investments globally, in a new survey by Canada’s Fraser Institute.
The three Australian states are ranked on par with Yemen, Libya, Iraq, Ecuador, Bolivia and Indonesia as the most unattractive destinations for oil and gas investments.
Compared with the Fraser Institute’s 2017 results, the three south-eastern Australian states are new additions to the group of ten least attractive jurisdictions.
“New South Wales experienced a six-point deterioration in its score this year, dropping from the 17th percentile in 2017 to the 10th percentile in 2018. Tasmania’s policy perception index score deteriorated by over 23 points since 2015 and Victoria saw its score drop by 14 points since 2017,” the report said.
The Fraser Institute ranked the top ten destinations as Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Wyoming, North Dakota, Alabama, Montana, US Offshore, as in the Gulf of Mexico, the North Sea, and Louisiana.
Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (Appea) CEO Malcolm Roberts said on Monday that Australia’s south-eastern states were keeping dubious company in their slide to the bottom as oil and gas investment destinations.
Roberts said the three states had been poor performers for years, but their investment rankings were still falling.
“At a time when Victoria and New South Wales increasingly rely on other states to meet their gas needs, their own climate for investment is going from bad to worse,” Roberts said.
South Australia has ranked as Australia’s most attractive destination for oil and gas investment, although its ranking and score has slipped, the state was ranked tenth among 97 jurisdictions in 2017, but fell to 20th among 80 jurisdictions this year. This, Roberts said, likely reflected the impact of the South Australian government’s “unscientific” fracking moratorium in the state’s south-east.
Western Australia, ranked 37th, Queensland, ranked 50th, and the Northern Territory, which after lifting its moratorium this year is ranked 68th, all saw slight increases in their rankings.
“Australia must continue to attract investment to develop our oil and gas resources and ensure reliable, affordable energy supplies, but it is alarming that the states that most need new supply are the most hostile to resource development,” Roberts said.
“That absurd situation means homes and businesses in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania will continue to pay higher prices to transport gas from other states, threatening the viability of hundreds of businesses and thousands of jobs that rely on natural gas supply.”