EnergyQuest Chief Executive Dr Graeme Bethune said “Clean energy policies were expected to lead to a boom in gas use, but so far the opposite seems to be happening.”
The report reveals electricity generated from natural gas fell to 5,677 gigawatt hours (GWh) in the March quarter 2012, down from 6,404 GWh in the March quarter 2011, a fall of 727 GWh. This led to a 5.9 petajoule (PJ), 3.8 per cent fall in east coast gas consumption.
Gas use for power generation increased in Queensland and Tasmania but was lower in the other eastern states.
“The Darling Downs and Braemar gas-fired power stations in Queensland were the only ones to buck the downward trend to any significant extent,” said Dr Bethune.
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The report stated that gross Australian LNG production fell by 9.5 per cent to 4.5 million tonnes in the quarter due to redevelopment work and cyclonic activity that affected North West Shelf production. However, according to the report, when Woodside’s Pluto project is in full production, Australia will rival Indonesia and Malaysia, the world’s second and third largest LNG producers.
The report also found that domestic gas production increased by 0.9 per cent to 247.3 PJ, west coast production rose by 1.4 per cent but east coast production was flat at 156 PJ, and total Australian petroleum production (oil, gas and natural gas liquids) fell by 4.5 per cent to 111.1 million barrels of oil equivalent, reflecting lower gas and oil production.
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