❓ Dr. Honey questions the Premier regarding the Energy Minister's assurance of no impact from the Santos gas shutdown, citing the Yara plant closure as evidence to the contrary. The Premier acknowledges the issue but highlights increased supply diversity and routine outages.
AnsweredQoN 803Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
DOMESTIC GAS SUPPLY — SANTOS SHUTDOWN
803. Dr D.J. HONEY to the Premier:
I
refer to the Minister for Energy's statement yesterday that Santos's
natural gas production shutdown is not expected to have an impact on
power supply to the south west interconnected system or gas supply to homes and
businesses, yet this morning news broke
about the Yara ammonia plant in the Pilbara shutting down due to the lack of
gas supply from Santos because of the gas leak. Does the Premier support
his minister's claim yesterday that there will be no impact on homes and businesses from Santos's
natural gas shutdown, given that negative ramifications for businesses have manifested within 24 hours?
803. Dr D.J. HONEY to the Premier:
I
refer to the Minister for Energy's statement yesterday that Santos's
natural gas production shutdown is not expected to have an impact on
power supply to the south west interconnected system or gas supply to homes and
businesses, yet this morning news broke
about the Yara ammonia plant in the Pilbara shutting down due to the lack of
gas supply from Santos because of the gas leak. Does the Premier support
his minister's claim yesterday that there will be no impact on homes and businesses from Santos's
natural gas shutdown, given that negative ramifications for businesses have manifested within 24 hours?
AnswerView source ↗
Just to put a little bit of context
around this, there is an offshore platform called the John Brookes platform, which is in commonwealth waters. It has had some sort of a leak. That
obviously requires repairs by Santos. That platform supplies gas to Varanus
Island, which then feeds into the Dampier to Bunbury natural gas pipeline.
Obviously, a loss of supply there is something that we have to take account of
in terms of electricity production. Contrary to the Varanus Island explosion
back in 2008, there is now much more diversity of supply of energy,
particularly into the south west interconnected system. I think that is the
point that the minister was making. There are outages in the system every day.
Birds sit on powerlines and cars hit power poles. There was a bushfire down my
way this morning. It may well have impacted
the powerlines. If we cannot get in to repair them, there are outages. That happens every single day. Sensible people
understand that. There is never a 100 per cent guarantee that incidents will
not occur that impact supply, but we are doing our best to manage a difficult
situation. We have diversity of supply. We are confident we can manage it. But
over the Christmas period, for a range of reasons, particularly the heat and
all the various things that can occur that impact the electricity network,
there are often outages. It has always been that way and I suspect it always
will be.
around this, there is an offshore platform called the John Brookes platform, which is in commonwealth waters. It has had some sort of a leak. That
obviously requires repairs by Santos. That platform supplies gas to Varanus
Island, which then feeds into the Dampier to Bunbury natural gas pipeline.
Obviously, a loss of supply there is something that we have to take account of
in terms of electricity production. Contrary to the Varanus Island explosion
back in 2008, there is now much more diversity of supply of energy,
particularly into the south west interconnected system. I think that is the
point that the minister was making. There are outages in the system every day.
Birds sit on powerlines and cars hit power poles. There was a bushfire down my
way this morning. It may well have impacted
the powerlines. If we cannot get in to repair them, there are outages. That happens every single day. Sensible people
understand that. There is never a 100 per cent guarantee that incidents will
not occur that impact supply, but we are doing our best to manage a difficult
situation. We have diversity of supply. We are confident we can manage it. But
over the Christmas period, for a range of reasons, particularly the heat and
all the various things that can occur that impact the electricity network,
there are often outages. It has always been that way and I suspect it always
will be.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.