❓ Question about ensuring local benefits from oil and gas projects in the North West electorate. Premier outlines government actions, including negotiations for revenue sharing and infrastructure development.
AnsweredQoN 625Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
OIL AND GAS PROJECTS — ANNOUNCEMENTS
I refer to the extraordinary series of announcements this week about oil and gas projects off the north-west coast of Western Australia. Will the Premier inform the house how the government will ensure that the people of my electorate will benefit from the enormous economic growth that will result from these projects? Mr T.G. Stephens interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Pilbara! Mr C.J. BARNETT
I refer to the extraordinary series of announcements this week about oil and gas projects off the north-west coast of Western Australia. Will the Premier inform the house how the government will ensure that the people of my electorate will benefit from the enormous economic growth that will result from these projects? Mr T.G. Stephens interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Pilbara! Mr C.J. BARNETT
AnswerView source ↗
We can bury Labor though. I thank the member for North West — Mr D.A. Templeman interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Mandurah! Yesterday I cut question time short. I do not want to do the same today. I would like some respect from members on both sides in this place for the members who ask and answer questions. Mr C.J. BARNETT : I thank the member for North West for the question. The observation that he made in his question is correct. There has been an extraordinary series of announcements and developments, particularly in the liquefied natural gas industry, over just the past three days. As he is the member representing the area—I hope he is about to be a member of the government—I will look to him to play a key role in helping to manage those issues in his electorate, particularly some of the broad social and economic issues. The reality is that large projects have a long gestation period. The gas for the Gorgon project, for example, was discovered in the early 1970s. I dealt with it as a minister in the 1990s, the Labor government dealt with it over seven years and this government has been dealing with it over the past year. The Liberal-National government is focused on project development and approval. The intensity—I emphasise that—the intensity with which we have dealt with major projects in this state, and particularly Gorgon, means that this project is on the cusp of proceeding. It is the largest resource development in this nation’s history and it is one of the largest projects on the planet. I thank the people in my office and the Ministers for Environment, Planning, Regional Development, the Treasurer and others for their efforts. There has been an incredible intensity of effort over the past six months on the Gorgon project, with all its complexities and different issues. The announcements started with environmental approval on 10 September from the Minister for the Environment and the Environmental Protection Authority for the Gorgon project. This week we have seen much more happen. After an intense period of negotiation, principally between my office and the Prime Minister’s office, it was agreed on Monday and endorsed by both federal and state cabinets that the state and commonwealth governments would cover the long-term liability of the carbon dioxide that is to be re-injected below Barrow Island. The prospect of that gas escaping is remote. It may never happen. If it does happen, it may happen in thousands of years. Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon the government to accept that responsibility. At one stage the commonwealth government thought that the state should accept 100 per cent of the liability, but that was unacceptable. After all, we did not share in the revenue stream from the project. At the end of the negotiation, we have agreed that the commonwealth will accept 80 per cent of the liability and the state will accept 20 per cent. As part of that negotiation, the commonwealth government has agreed that the state will receive $100 million a year in revenue from Gorgon. We will enter into further discussions about bringing that forward so that we can do the necessary work that the member would be looking for to be done in his electorate to ensure that economic and social infrastructure and training are up to speed for that project. That was a significant step. Members are aware that a few weeks ago I went to China and visited all the potential major customers of the Gorgon project and other projects. I am not saying that that was absolutely critical to the individual contracts, but I worked hard for this state to reassure the Chinese government officials and major state-owned enterprises about the importance to this government of these contracts and of our confidence in the projects. I had to do that because, as I have said before, Australia’s relationship with China is extremely brittle. That is underestimated by most of the Australian media and most Australian enterprises. Although I knew it was coming, I was pleased that ExxonMobil, a 25 per cent partner in Gorgon, announced its sale of 2.25 million tonnes of gas to PetroChina. It is a $50 billion sale, but it is only 2.25 million tonnes, and Gorgon will produce 30 million tonnes a year. A whole series of massive overlapping contracts have been entered into. What remains is a final investment decision by the three joint venture partners, then final approval by the state for construction on Barrow Island, and then final approval from the commonwealth for production licences for the gas reserves. We are not quite at that point, but we are very close to it. I attended a brief function this morning at which an agreement was announced between Santos, an Australian company, and the French group GFD Suez, the largest single utility in the world and the largest energy player in gas in Europe, to come together to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate fields. These are small gas fields to the north of Wyndham. They could not of themselves support the major pipelines, production jackets and onshore facilities of larger LNG projects. It will be a floating development, but again a massive project that will allow some of those smaller, potentially stranded, gas fields to be developed. I acknowledge the role of the former Premier in the Pluto project, which he personally and successfully handled. Woodside Petroleum announced today that it would go into front-end engineering design for trains 2 and 3 of Pluto. All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
Mr T.G. Stephens interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Pilbara! Mr C.J. BARNETT replied: We can bury Labor though. I thank the member for North West — Mr D.A. Templeman interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Mandurah! Yesterday I cut question time short. I do not want to do the same today. I would like some respect from members on both sides in this place for the members who ask and answer questions. Mr C.J. BARNETT : I thank the member for North West for the question. The observation that he made in his question is correct. There has been an extraordinary series of announcements and developments, particularly in the liquefied natural gas industry, over just the past three days. As he is the member representing the area—I hope he is about to be a member of the government—I will look to him to play a key role in helping to manage those issues in his electorate, particularly some of the broad social and economic issues. The reality is that large projects have a long gestation period. The gas for the Gorgon project, for example, was discovered in the early 1970s. I dealt with it as a minister in the 1990s, the Labor government dealt with it over seven years and this government has been dealing with it over the past year. The Liberal-National government is focused on project development and approval. The intensity—I emphasise that—the intensity with which we have dealt with major projects in this state, and particularly Gorgon, means that this project is on the cusp of proceeding. It is the largest resource development in this nation’s history and it is one of the largest projects on the planet. I thank the people in my office and the Ministers for Environment, Planning, Regional Development, the Treasurer and others for their efforts. There has been an incredible intensity of effort over the past six months on the Gorgon project, with all its complexities and different issues. The announcements started with environmental approval on 10 September from the Minister for the Environment and the Environmental Protection Authority for the Gorgon project. This week we have seen much more happen. After an intense period of negotiation, principally between my office and the Prime Minister’s office, it was agreed on Monday and endorsed by both federal and state cabinets that the state and commonwealth governments would cover the long-term liability of the carbon dioxide that is to be re-injected below Barrow Island. The prospect of that gas escaping is remote. It may never happen. If it does happen, it may happen in thousands of years. Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon the government to accept that responsibility. At one stage the commonwealth government thought that the state should accept 100 per cent of the liability, but that was unacceptable. After all, we did not share in the revenue stream from the project. At the end of the negotiation, we have agreed that the commonwealth will accept 80 per cent of the liability and the state will accept 20 per cent. As part of that negotiation, the commonwealth government has agreed that the state will receive $100 million a year in revenue from Gorgon. We will enter into further discussions about bringing that forward so that we can do the necessary work that the member would be looking for to be done in his electorate to ensure that economic and social infrastructure and training are up to speed for that project. That was a significant step. Members are aware that a few weeks ago I went to China and visited all the potential major customers of the Gorgon project and other projects. I am not saying that that was absolutely critical to the individual contracts, but I worked hard for this state to reassure the Chinese government officials and major state-owned enterprises about the importance to this government of these contracts and of our confidence in the projects. I had to do that because, as I have said before, Australia’s relationship with China is extremely brittle. That is underestimated by most of the Australian media and most Australian enterprises. Although I knew it was coming, I was pleased that ExxonMobil, a 25 per cent partner in Gorgon, announced its sale of 2.25 million tonnes of gas to PetroChina. It is a $50 billion sale, but it is only 2.25 million tonnes, and Gorgon will produce 30 million tonnes a year. A whole series of massive overlapping contracts have been entered into. What remains is a final investment decision by the three joint venture partners, then final approval by the state for construction on Barrow Island, and then final approval from the commonwealth for production licences for the gas reserves. We are not quite at that point, but we are very close to it. I attended a brief function this morning at which an agreement was announced between Santos, an Australian company, and the French group GFD Suez, the largest single utility in the world and the largest energy player in gas in Europe, to come together to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate fields. These are small gas fields to the north of Wyndham. They could not of themselves support the major pipelines, production jackets and onshore facilities of larger LNG projects. It will be a floating development, but again a massive project that will allow some of those smaller, potentially stranded, gas fields to be developed. I acknowledge the role of the former Premier in the Pluto project, which he personally and successfully handled. Woodside Petroleum announced today that it would go into front-end engineering design for trains 2 and 3 of Pluto. All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
The SPEAKER : Member for Pilbara! Mr C.J. BARNETT replied: We can bury Labor though. I thank the member for North West — Mr D.A. Templeman interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Mandurah! Yesterday I cut question time short. I do not want to do the same today. I would like some respect from members on both sides in this place for the members who ask and answer questions. Mr C.J. BARNETT : I thank the member for North West for the question. The observation that he made in his question is correct. There has been an extraordinary series of announcements and developments, particularly in the liquefied natural gas industry, over just the past three days. As he is the member representing the area—I hope he is about to be a member of the government—I will look to him to play a key role in helping to manage those issues in his electorate, particularly some of the broad social and economic issues. The reality is that large projects have a long gestation period. The gas for the Gorgon project, for example, was discovered in the early 1970s. I dealt with it as a minister in the 1990s, the Labor government dealt with it over seven years and this government has been dealing with it over the past year. The Liberal-National government is focused on project development and approval. The intensity—I emphasise that—the intensity with which we have dealt with major projects in this state, and particularly Gorgon, means that this project is on the cusp of proceeding. It is the largest resource development in this nation’s history and it is one of the largest projects on the planet. I thank the people in my office and the Ministers for Environment, Planning, Regional Development, the Treasurer and others for their efforts. There has been an incredible intensity of effort over the past six months on the Gorgon project, with all its complexities and different issues. The announcements started with environmental approval on 10 September from the Minister for the Environment and the Environmental Protection Authority for the Gorgon project. This week we have seen much more happen. After an intense period of negotiation, principally between my office and the Prime Minister’s office, it was agreed on Monday and endorsed by both federal and state cabinets that the state and commonwealth governments would cover the long-term liability of the carbon dioxide that is to be re-injected below Barrow Island. The prospect of that gas escaping is remote. It may never happen. If it does happen, it may happen in thousands of years. Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon the government to accept that responsibility. At one stage the commonwealth government thought that the state should accept 100 per cent of the liability, but that was unacceptable. After all, we did not share in the revenue stream from the project. At the end of the negotiation, we have agreed that the commonwealth will accept 80 per cent of the liability and the state will accept 20 per cent. As part of that negotiation, the commonwealth government has agreed that the state will receive $100 million a year in revenue from Gorgon. We will enter into further discussions about bringing that forward so that we can do the necessary work that the member would be looking for to be done in his electorate to ensure that economic and social infrastructure and training are up to speed for that project. That was a significant step. Members are aware that a few weeks ago I went to China and visited all the potential major customers of the Gorgon project and other projects. I am not saying that that was absolutely critical to the individual contracts, but I worked hard for this state to reassure the Chinese government officials and major state-owned enterprises about the importance to this government of these contracts and of our confidence in the projects. I had to do that because, as I have said before, Australia’s relationship with China is extremely brittle. That is underestimated by most of the Australian media and most Australian enterprises. Although I knew it was coming, I was pleased that ExxonMobil, a 25 per cent partner in Gorgon, announced its sale of 2.25 million tonnes of gas to PetroChina. It is a $50 billion sale, but it is only 2.25 million tonnes, and Gorgon will produce 30 million tonnes a year. A whole series of massive overlapping contracts have been entered into. What remains is a final investment decision by the three joint venture partners, then final approval by the state for construction on Barrow Island, and then final approval from the commonwealth for production licences for the gas reserves. We are not quite at that point, but we are very close to it. I attended a brief function this morning at which an agreement was announced between Santos, an Australian company, and the French group GFD Suez, the largest single utility in the world and the largest energy player in gas in Europe, to come together to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate fields. These are small gas fields to the north of Wyndham. They could not of themselves support the major pipelines, production jackets and onshore facilities of larger LNG projects. It will be a floating development, but again a massive project that will allow some of those smaller, potentially stranded, gas fields to be developed. I acknowledge the role of the former Premier in the Pluto project, which he personally and successfully handled. Woodside Petroleum announced today that it would go into front-end engineering design for trains 2 and 3 of Pluto. All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
Mr C.J. BARNETT replied: We can bury Labor though. I thank the member for North West — Mr D.A. Templeman interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Mandurah! Yesterday I cut question time short. I do not want to do the same today. I would like some respect from members on both sides in this place for the members who ask and answer questions. Mr C.J. BARNETT : I thank the member for North West for the question. The observation that he made in his question is correct. There has been an extraordinary series of announcements and developments, particularly in the liquefied natural gas industry, over just the past three days. As he is the member representing the area—I hope he is about to be a member of the government—I will look to him to play a key role in helping to manage those issues in his electorate, particularly some of the broad social and economic issues. The reality is that large projects have a long gestation period. The gas for the Gorgon project, for example, was discovered in the early 1970s. I dealt with it as a minister in the 1990s, the Labor government dealt with it over seven years and this government has been dealing with it over the past year. The Liberal-National government is focused on project development and approval. The intensity—I emphasise that—the intensity with which we have dealt with major projects in this state, and particularly Gorgon, means that this project is on the cusp of proceeding. It is the largest resource development in this nation’s history and it is one of the largest projects on the planet. I thank the people in my office and the Ministers for Environment, Planning, Regional Development, the Treasurer and others for their efforts. There has been an incredible intensity of effort over the past six months on the Gorgon project, with all its complexities and different issues. The announcements started with environmental approval on 10 September from the Minister for the Environment and the Environmental Protection Authority for the Gorgon project. This week we have seen much more happen. After an intense period of negotiation, principally between my office and the Prime Minister’s office, it was agreed on Monday and endorsed by both federal and state cabinets that the state and commonwealth governments would cover the long-term liability of the carbon dioxide that is to be re-injected below Barrow Island. The prospect of that gas escaping is remote. It may never happen. If it does happen, it may happen in thousands of years. Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon the government to accept that responsibility. At one stage the commonwealth government thought that the state should accept 100 per cent of the liability, but that was unacceptable. After all, we did not share in the revenue stream from the project. At the end of the negotiation, we have agreed that the commonwealth will accept 80 per cent of the liability and the state will accept 20 per cent. As part of that negotiation, the commonwealth government has agreed that the state will receive $100 million a year in revenue from Gorgon. We will enter into further discussions about bringing that forward so that we can do the necessary work that the member would be looking for to be done in his electorate to ensure that economic and social infrastructure and training are up to speed for that project. That was a significant step. Members are aware that a few weeks ago I went to China and visited all the potential major customers of the Gorgon project and other projects. I am not saying that that was absolutely critical to the individual contracts, but I worked hard for this state to reassure the Chinese government officials and major state-owned enterprises about the importance to this government of these contracts and of our confidence in the projects. I had to do that because, as I have said before, Australia’s relationship with China is extremely brittle. That is underestimated by most of the Australian media and most Australian enterprises. Although I knew it was coming, I was pleased that ExxonMobil, a 25 per cent partner in Gorgon, announced its sale of 2.25 million tonnes of gas to PetroChina. It is a $50 billion sale, but it is only 2.25 million tonnes, and Gorgon will produce 30 million tonnes a year. A whole series of massive overlapping contracts have been entered into. What remains is a final investment decision by the three joint venture partners, then final approval by the state for construction on Barrow Island, and then final approval from the commonwealth for production licences for the gas reserves. We are not quite at that point, but we are very close to it. I attended a brief function this morning at which an agreement was announced between Santos, an Australian company, and the French group GFD Suez, the largest single utility in the world and the largest energy player in gas in Europe, to come together to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate fields. These are small gas fields to the north of Wyndham. They could not of themselves support the major pipelines, production jackets and onshore facilities of larger LNG projects. It will be a floating development, but again a massive project that will allow some of those smaller, potentially stranded, gas fields to be developed. I acknowledge the role of the former Premier in the Pluto project, which he personally and successfully handled. Woodside Petroleum announced today that it would go into front-end engineering design for trains 2 and 3 of Pluto. All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
We can bury Labor though. I thank the member for North West — Mr D.A. Templeman interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Mandurah! Yesterday I cut question time short. I do not want to do the same today. I would like some respect from members on both sides in this place for the members who ask and answer questions. Mr C.J. BARNETT : I thank the member for North West for the question. The observation that he made in his question is correct. There has been an extraordinary series of announcements and developments, particularly in the liquefied natural gas industry, over just the past three days. As he is the member representing the area—I hope he is about to be a member of the government—I will look to him to play a key role in helping to manage those issues in his electorate, particularly some of the broad social and economic issues. The reality is that large projects have a long gestation period. The gas for the Gorgon project, for example, was discovered in the early 1970s. I dealt with it as a minister in the 1990s, the Labor government dealt with it over seven years and this government has been dealing with it over the past year. The Liberal-National government is focused on project development and approval. The intensity—I emphasise that—the intensity with which we have dealt with major projects in this state, and particularly Gorgon, means that this project is on the cusp of proceeding. It is the largest resource development in this nation’s history and it is one of the largest projects on the planet. I thank the people in my office and the Ministers for Environment, Planning, Regional Development, the Treasurer and others for their efforts. There has been an incredible intensity of effort over the past six months on the Gorgon project, with all its complexities and different issues. The announcements started with environmental approval on 10 September from the Minister for the Environment and the Environmental Protection Authority for the Gorgon project. This week we have seen much more happen. After an intense period of negotiation, principally between my office and the Prime Minister’s office, it was agreed on Monday and endorsed by both federal and state cabinets that the state and commonwealth governments would cover the long-term liability of the carbon dioxide that is to be re-injected below Barrow Island. The prospect of that gas escaping is remote. It may never happen. If it does happen, it may happen in thousands of years. Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon the government to accept that responsibility. At one stage the commonwealth government thought that the state should accept 100 per cent of the liability, but that was unacceptable. After all, we did not share in the revenue stream from the project. At the end of the negotiation, we have agreed that the commonwealth will accept 80 per cent of the liability and the state will accept 20 per cent. As part of that negotiation, the commonwealth government has agreed that the state will receive $100 million a year in revenue from Gorgon. We will enter into further discussions about bringing that forward so that we can do the necessary work that the member would be looking for to be done in his electorate to ensure that economic and social infrastructure and training are up to speed for that project. That was a significant step. Members are aware that a few weeks ago I went to China and visited all the potential major customers of the Gorgon project and other projects. I am not saying that that was absolutely critical to the individual contracts, but I worked hard for this state to reassure the Chinese government officials and major state-owned enterprises about the importance to this government of these contracts and of our confidence in the projects. I had to do that because, as I have said before, Australia’s relationship with China is extremely brittle. That is underestimated by most of the Australian media and most Australian enterprises. Although I knew it was coming, I was pleased that ExxonMobil, a 25 per cent partner in Gorgon, announced its sale of 2.25 million tonnes of gas to PetroChina. It is a $50 billion sale, but it is only 2.25 million tonnes, and Gorgon will produce 30 million tonnes a year. A whole series of massive overlapping contracts have been entered into. What remains is a final investment decision by the three joint venture partners, then final approval by the state for construction on Barrow Island, and then final approval from the commonwealth for production licences for the gas reserves. We are not quite at that point, but we are very close to it. I attended a brief function this morning at which an agreement was announced between Santos, an Australian company, and the French group GFD Suez, the largest single utility in the world and the largest energy player in gas in Europe, to come together to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate fields. These are small gas fields to the north of Wyndham. They could not of themselves support the major pipelines, production jackets and onshore facilities of larger LNG projects. It will be a floating development, but again a massive project that will allow some of those smaller, potentially stranded, gas fields to be developed. I acknowledge the role of the former Premier in the Pluto project, which he personally and successfully handled. Woodside Petroleum announced today that it would go into front-end engineering design for trains 2 and 3 of Pluto. All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
I thank the member for North West — Mr D.A. Templeman interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Mandurah! Yesterday I cut question time short. I do not want to do the same today. I would like some respect from members on both sides in this place for the members who ask and answer questions. Mr C.J. BARNETT : I thank the member for North West for the question. The observation that he made in his question is correct. There has been an extraordinary series of announcements and developments, particularly in the liquefied natural gas industry, over just the past three days. As he is the member representing the area—I hope he is about to be a member of the government—I will look to him to play a key role in helping to manage those issues in his electorate, particularly some of the broad social and economic issues. The reality is that large projects have a long gestation period. The gas for the Gorgon project, for example, was discovered in the early 1970s. I dealt with it as a minister in the 1990s, the Labor government dealt with it over seven years and this government has been dealing with it over the past year. The Liberal-National government is focused on project development and approval. The intensity—I emphasise that—the intensity with which we have dealt with major projects in this state, and particularly Gorgon, means that this project is on the cusp of proceeding. It is the largest resource development in this nation’s history and it is one of the largest projects on the planet. I thank the people in my office and the Ministers for Environment, Planning, Regional Development, the Treasurer and others for their efforts. There has been an incredible intensity of effort over the past six months on the Gorgon project, with all its complexities and different issues. The announcements started with environmental approval on 10 September from the Minister for the Environment and the Environmental Protection Authority for the Gorgon project. This week we have seen much more happen. After an intense period of negotiation, principally between my office and the Prime Minister’s office, it was agreed on Monday and endorsed by both federal and state cabinets that the state and commonwealth governments would cover the long-term liability of the carbon dioxide that is to be re-injected below Barrow Island. The prospect of that gas escaping is remote. It may never happen. If it does happen, it may happen in thousands of years. Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon the government to accept that responsibility. At one stage the commonwealth government thought that the state should accept 100 per cent of the liability, but that was unacceptable. After all, we did not share in the revenue stream from the project. At the end of the negotiation, we have agreed that the commonwealth will accept 80 per cent of the liability and the state will accept 20 per cent. As part of that negotiation, the commonwealth government has agreed that the state will receive $100 million a year in revenue from Gorgon. We will enter into further discussions about bringing that forward so that we can do the necessary work that the member would be looking for to be done in his electorate to ensure that economic and social infrastructure and training are up to speed for that project. That was a significant step. Members are aware that a few weeks ago I went to China and visited all the potential major customers of the Gorgon project and other projects. I am not saying that that was absolutely critical to the individual contracts, but I worked hard for this state to reassure the Chinese government officials and major state-owned enterprises about the importance to this government of these contracts and of our confidence in the projects. I had to do that because, as I have said before, Australia’s relationship with China is extremely brittle. That is underestimated by most of the Australian media and most Australian enterprises. Although I knew it was coming, I was pleased that ExxonMobil, a 25 per cent partner in Gorgon, announced its sale of 2.25 million tonnes of gas to PetroChina. It is a $50 billion sale, but it is only 2.25 million tonnes, and Gorgon will produce 30 million tonnes a year. A whole series of massive overlapping contracts have been entered into. What remains is a final investment decision by the three joint venture partners, then final approval by the state for construction on Barrow Island, and then final approval from the commonwealth for production licences for the gas reserves. We are not quite at that point, but we are very close to it. I attended a brief function this morning at which an agreement was announced between Santos, an Australian company, and the French group GFD Suez, the largest single utility in the world and the largest energy player in gas in Europe, to come together to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate fields. These are small gas fields to the north of Wyndham. They could not of themselves support the major pipelines, production jackets and onshore facilities of larger LNG projects. It will be a floating development, but again a massive project that will allow some of those smaller, potentially stranded, gas fields to be developed. I acknowledge the role of the former Premier in the Pluto project, which he personally and successfully handled. Woodside Petroleum announced today that it would go into front-end engineering design for trains 2 and 3 of Pluto. All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
Mr D.A. Templeman interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Mandurah! Yesterday I cut question time short. I do not want to do the same today. I would like some respect from members on both sides in this place for the members who ask and answer questions. Mr C.J. BARNETT : I thank the member for North West for the question. The observation that he made in his question is correct. There has been an extraordinary series of announcements and developments, particularly in the liquefied natural gas industry, over just the past three days. As he is the member representing the area—I hope he is about to be a member of the government—I will look to him to play a key role in helping to manage those issues in his electorate, particularly some of the broad social and economic issues. The reality is that large projects have a long gestation period. The gas for the Gorgon project, for example, was discovered in the early 1970s. I dealt with it as a minister in the 1990s, the Labor government dealt with it over seven years and this government has been dealing with it over the past year. The Liberal-National government is focused on project development and approval. The intensity—I emphasise that—the intensity with which we have dealt with major projects in this state, and particularly Gorgon, means that this project is on the cusp of proceeding. It is the largest resource development in this nation’s history and it is one of the largest projects on the planet. I thank the people in my office and the Ministers for Environment, Planning, Regional Development, the Treasurer and others for their efforts. There has been an incredible intensity of effort over the past six months on the Gorgon project, with all its complexities and different issues. The announcements started with environmental approval on 10 September from the Minister for the Environment and the Environmental Protection Authority for the Gorgon project. This week we have seen much more happen. After an intense period of negotiation, principally between my office and the Prime Minister’s office, it was agreed on Monday and endorsed by both federal and state cabinets that the state and commonwealth governments would cover the long-term liability of the carbon dioxide that is to be re-injected below Barrow Island. The prospect of that gas escaping is remote. It may never happen. If it does happen, it may happen in thousands of years. Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon the government to accept that responsibility. At one stage the commonwealth government thought that the state should accept 100 per cent of the liability, but that was unacceptable. After all, we did not share in the revenue stream from the project. At the end of the negotiation, we have agreed that the commonwealth will accept 80 per cent of the liability and the state will accept 20 per cent. As part of that negotiation, the commonwealth government has agreed that the state will receive $100 million a year in revenue from Gorgon. We will enter into further discussions about bringing that forward so that we can do the necessary work that the member would be looking for to be done in his electorate to ensure that economic and social infrastructure and training are up to speed for that project. That was a significant step. Members are aware that a few weeks ago I went to China and visited all the potential major customers of the Gorgon project and other projects. I am not saying that that was absolutely critical to the individual contracts, but I worked hard for this state to reassure the Chinese government officials and major state-owned enterprises about the importance to this government of these contracts and of our confidence in the projects. I had to do that because, as I have said before, Australia’s relationship with China is extremely brittle. That is underestimated by most of the Australian media and most Australian enterprises. Although I knew it was coming, I was pleased that ExxonMobil, a 25 per cent partner in Gorgon, announced its sale of 2.25 million tonnes of gas to PetroChina. It is a $50 billion sale, but it is only 2.25 million tonnes, and Gorgon will produce 30 million tonnes a year. A whole series of massive overlapping contracts have been entered into. What remains is a final investment decision by the three joint venture partners, then final approval by the state for construction on Barrow Island, and then final approval from the commonwealth for production licences for the gas reserves. We are not quite at that point, but we are very close to it. I attended a brief function this morning at which an agreement was announced between Santos, an Australian company, and the French group GFD Suez, the largest single utility in the world and the largest energy player in gas in Europe, to come together to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate fields. These are small gas fields to the north of Wyndham. They could not of themselves support the major pipelines, production jackets and onshore facilities of larger LNG projects. It will be a floating development, but again a massive project that will allow some of those smaller, potentially stranded, gas fields to be developed. I acknowledge the role of the former Premier in the Pluto project, which he personally and successfully handled. Woodside Petroleum announced today that it would go into front-end engineering design for trains 2 and 3 of Pluto. All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
The SPEAKER : Member for Mandurah! Yesterday I cut question time short. I do not want to do the same today. I would like some respect from members on both sides in this place for the members who ask and answer questions. Mr C.J. BARNETT : I thank the member for North West for the question. The observation that he made in his question is correct. There has been an extraordinary series of announcements and developments, particularly in the liquefied natural gas industry, over just the past three days. As he is the member representing the area—I hope he is about to be a member of the government—I will look to him to play a key role in helping to manage those issues in his electorate, particularly some of the broad social and economic issues. The reality is that large projects have a long gestation period. The gas for the Gorgon project, for example, was discovered in the early 1970s. I dealt with it as a minister in the 1990s, the Labor government dealt with it over seven years and this government has been dealing with it over the past year. The Liberal-National government is focused on project development and approval. The intensity—I emphasise that—the intensity with which we have dealt with major projects in this state, and particularly Gorgon, means that this project is on the cusp of proceeding. It is the largest resource development in this nation’s history and it is one of the largest projects on the planet. I thank the people in my office and the Ministers for Environment, Planning, Regional Development, the Treasurer and others for their efforts. There has been an incredible intensity of effort over the past six months on the Gorgon project, with all its complexities and different issues. The announcements started with environmental approval on 10 September from the Minister for the Environment and the Environmental Protection Authority for the Gorgon project. This week we have seen much more happen. After an intense period of negotiation, principally between my office and the Prime Minister’s office, it was agreed on Monday and endorsed by both federal and state cabinets that the state and commonwealth governments would cover the long-term liability of the carbon dioxide that is to be re-injected below Barrow Island. The prospect of that gas escaping is remote. It may never happen. If it does happen, it may happen in thousands of years. Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon the government to accept that responsibility. At one stage the commonwealth government thought that the state should accept 100 per cent of the liability, but that was unacceptable. After all, we did not share in the revenue stream from the project. At the end of the negotiation, we have agreed that the commonwealth will accept 80 per cent of the liability and the state will accept 20 per cent. As part of that negotiation, the commonwealth government has agreed that the state will receive $100 million a year in revenue from Gorgon. We will enter into further discussions about bringing that forward so that we can do the necessary work that the member would be looking for to be done in his electorate to ensure that economic and social infrastructure and training are up to speed for that project. That was a significant step. Members are aware that a few weeks ago I went to China and visited all the potential major customers of the Gorgon project and other projects. I am not saying that that was absolutely critical to the individual contracts, but I worked hard for this state to reassure the Chinese government officials and major state-owned enterprises about the importance to this government of these contracts and of our confidence in the projects. I had to do that because, as I have said before, Australia’s relationship with China is extremely brittle. That is underestimated by most of the Australian media and most Australian enterprises. Although I knew it was coming, I was pleased that ExxonMobil, a 25 per cent partner in Gorgon, announced its sale of 2.25 million tonnes of gas to PetroChina. It is a $50 billion sale, but it is only 2.25 million tonnes, and Gorgon will produce 30 million tonnes a year. A whole series of massive overlapping contracts have been entered into. What remains is a final investment decision by the three joint venture partners, then final approval by the state for construction on Barrow Island, and then final approval from the commonwealth for production licences for the gas reserves. We are not quite at that point, but we are very close to it. I attended a brief function this morning at which an agreement was announced between Santos, an Australian company, and the French group GFD Suez, the largest single utility in the world and the largest energy player in gas in Europe, to come together to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate fields. These are small gas fields to the north of Wyndham. They could not of themselves support the major pipelines, production jackets and onshore facilities of larger LNG projects. It will be a floating development, but again a massive project that will allow some of those smaller, potentially stranded, gas fields to be developed. I acknowledge the role of the former Premier in the Pluto project, which he personally and successfully handled. Woodside Petroleum announced today that it would go into front-end engineering design for trains 2 and 3 of Pluto. All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
Mr C.J. BARNETT : I thank the member for North West for the question. The observation that he made in his question is correct. There has been an extraordinary series of announcements and developments, particularly in the liquefied natural gas industry, over just the past three days. As he is the member representing the area—I hope he is about to be a member of the government—I will look to him to play a key role in helping to manage those issues in his electorate, particularly some of the broad social and economic issues. The reality is that large projects have a long gestation period. The gas for the Gorgon project, for example, was discovered in the early 1970s. I dealt with it as a minister in the 1990s, the Labor government dealt with it over seven years and this government has been dealing with it over the past year. The Liberal-National government is focused on project development and approval. The intensity—I emphasise that—the intensity with which we have dealt with major projects in this state, and particularly Gorgon, means that this project is on the cusp of proceeding. It is the largest resource development in this nation’s history and it is one of the largest projects on the planet. I thank the people in my office and the Ministers for Environment, Planning, Regional Development, the Treasurer and others for their efforts. There has been an incredible intensity of effort over the past six months on the Gorgon project, with all its complexities and different issues. The announcements started with environmental approval on 10 September from the Minister for the Environment and the Environmental Protection Authority for the Gorgon project. This week we have seen much more happen. After an intense period of negotiation, principally between my office and the Prime Minister’s office, it was agreed on Monday and endorsed by both federal and state cabinets that the state and commonwealth governments would cover the long-term liability of the carbon dioxide that is to be re-injected below Barrow Island. The prospect of that gas escaping is remote. It may never happen. If it does happen, it may happen in thousands of years. Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon the government to accept that responsibility. At one stage the commonwealth government thought that the state should accept 100 per cent of the liability, but that was unacceptable. After all, we did not share in the revenue stream from the project. At the end of the negotiation, we have agreed that the commonwealth will accept 80 per cent of the liability and the state will accept 20 per cent. As part of that negotiation, the commonwealth government has agreed that the state will receive $100 million a year in revenue from Gorgon. We will enter into further discussions about bringing that forward so that we can do the necessary work that the member would be looking for to be done in his electorate to ensure that economic and social infrastructure and training are up to speed for that project. That was a significant step. Members are aware that a few weeks ago I went to China and visited all the potential major customers of the Gorgon project and other projects. I am not saying that that was absolutely critical to the individual contracts, but I worked hard for this state to reassure the Chinese government officials and major state-owned enterprises about the importance to this government of these contracts and of our confidence in the projects. I had to do that because, as I have said before, Australia’s relationship with China is extremely brittle. That is underestimated by most of the Australian media and most Australian enterprises. Although I knew it was coming, I was pleased that ExxonMobil, a 25 per cent partner in Gorgon, announced its sale of 2.25 million tonnes of gas to PetroChina. It is a $50 billion sale, but it is only 2.25 million tonnes, and Gorgon will produce 30 million tonnes a year. A whole series of massive overlapping contracts have been entered into. What remains is a final investment decision by the three joint venture partners, then final approval by the state for construction on Barrow Island, and then final approval from the commonwealth for production licences for the gas reserves. We are not quite at that point, but we are very close to it. I attended a brief function this morning at which an agreement was announced between Santos, an Australian company, and the French group GFD Suez, the largest single utility in the world and the largest energy player in gas in Europe, to come together to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate fields. These are small gas fields to the north of Wyndham. They could not of themselves support the major pipelines, production jackets and onshore facilities of larger LNG projects. It will be a floating development, but again a massive project that will allow some of those smaller, potentially stranded, gas fields to be developed. I acknowledge the role of the former Premier in the Pluto project, which he personally and successfully handled. Woodside Petroleum announced today that it would go into front-end engineering design for trains 2 and 3 of Pluto. All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
The reality is that large projects have a long gestation period. The gas for the Gorgon project, for example, was discovered in the early 1970s. I dealt with it as a minister in the 1990s, the Labor government dealt with it over seven years and this government has been dealing with it over the past year. The Liberal-National government is focused on project development and approval. The intensity—I emphasise that—the intensity with which we have dealt with major projects in this state, and particularly Gorgon, means that this project is on the cusp of proceeding. It is the largest resource development in this nation’s history and it is one of the largest projects on the planet. I thank the people in my office and the Ministers for Environment, Planning, Regional Development, the Treasurer and others for their efforts. There has been an incredible intensity of effort over the past six months on the Gorgon project, with all its complexities and different issues. The announcements started with environmental approval on 10 September from the Minister for the Environment and the Environmental Protection Authority for the Gorgon project. This week we have seen much more happen. After an intense period of negotiation, principally between my office and the Prime Minister’s office, it was agreed on Monday and endorsed by both federal and state cabinets that the state and commonwealth governments would cover the long-term liability of the carbon dioxide that is to be re-injected below Barrow Island. The prospect of that gas escaping is remote. It may never happen. If it does happen, it may happen in thousands of years. Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon the government to accept that responsibility. At one stage the commonwealth government thought that the state should accept 100 per cent of the liability, but that was unacceptable. After all, we did not share in the revenue stream from the project. At the end of the negotiation, we have agreed that the commonwealth will accept 80 per cent of the liability and the state will accept 20 per cent. As part of that negotiation, the commonwealth government has agreed that the state will receive $100 million a year in revenue from Gorgon. We will enter into further discussions about bringing that forward so that we can do the necessary work that the member would be looking for to be done in his electorate to ensure that economic and social infrastructure and training are up to speed for that project. That was a significant step. Members are aware that a few weeks ago I went to China and visited all the potential major customers of the Gorgon project and other projects. I am not saying that that was absolutely critical to the individual contracts, but I worked hard for this state to reassure the Chinese government officials and major state-owned enterprises about the importance to this government of these contracts and of our confidence in the projects. I had to do that because, as I have said before, Australia’s relationship with China is extremely brittle. That is underestimated by most of the Australian media and most Australian enterprises. Although I knew it was coming, I was pleased that ExxonMobil, a 25 per cent partner in Gorgon, announced its sale of 2.25 million tonnes of gas to PetroChina. It is a $50 billion sale, but it is only 2.25 million tonnes, and Gorgon will produce 30 million tonnes a year. A whole series of massive overlapping contracts have been entered into. What remains is a final investment decision by the three joint venture partners, then final approval by the state for construction on Barrow Island, and then final approval from the commonwealth for production licences for the gas reserves. We are not quite at that point, but we are very close to it. I attended a brief function this morning at which an agreement was announced between Santos, an Australian company, and the French group GFD Suez, the largest single utility in the world and the largest energy player in gas in Europe, to come together to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate fields. These are small gas fields to the north of Wyndham. They could not of themselves support the major pipelines, production jackets and onshore facilities of larger LNG projects. It will be a floating development, but again a massive project that will allow some of those smaller, potentially stranded, gas fields to be developed. I acknowledge the role of the former Premier in the Pluto project, which he personally and successfully handled. Woodside Petroleum announced today that it would go into front-end engineering design for trains 2 and 3 of Pluto. All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
The announcements started with environmental approval on 10 September from the Minister for the Environment and the Environmental Protection Authority for the Gorgon project. This week we have seen much more happen. After an intense period of negotiation, principally between my office and the Prime Minister’s office, it was agreed on Monday and endorsed by both federal and state cabinets that the state and commonwealth governments would cover the long-term liability of the carbon dioxide that is to be re-injected below Barrow Island. The prospect of that gas escaping is remote. It may never happen. If it does happen, it may happen in thousands of years. Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon the government to accept that responsibility. At one stage the commonwealth government thought that the state should accept 100 per cent of the liability, but that was unacceptable. After all, we did not share in the revenue stream from the project. At the end of the negotiation, we have agreed that the commonwealth will accept 80 per cent of the liability and the state will accept 20 per cent. As part of that negotiation, the commonwealth government has agreed that the state will receive $100 million a year in revenue from Gorgon. We will enter into further discussions about bringing that forward so that we can do the necessary work that the member would be looking for to be done in his electorate to ensure that economic and social infrastructure and training are up to speed for that project. That was a significant step. Members are aware that a few weeks ago I went to China and visited all the potential major customers of the Gorgon project and other projects. I am not saying that that was absolutely critical to the individual contracts, but I worked hard for this state to reassure the Chinese government officials and major state-owned enterprises about the importance to this government of these contracts and of our confidence in the projects. I had to do that because, as I have said before, Australia’s relationship with China is extremely brittle. That is underestimated by most of the Australian media and most Australian enterprises. Although I knew it was coming, I was pleased that ExxonMobil, a 25 per cent partner in Gorgon, announced its sale of 2.25 million tonnes of gas to PetroChina. It is a $50 billion sale, but it is only 2.25 million tonnes, and Gorgon will produce 30 million tonnes a year. A whole series of massive overlapping contracts have been entered into. What remains is a final investment decision by the three joint venture partners, then final approval by the state for construction on Barrow Island, and then final approval from the commonwealth for production licences for the gas reserves. We are not quite at that point, but we are very close to it. I attended a brief function this morning at which an agreement was announced between Santos, an Australian company, and the French group GFD Suez, the largest single utility in the world and the largest energy player in gas in Europe, to come together to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate fields. These are small gas fields to the north of Wyndham. They could not of themselves support the major pipelines, production jackets and onshore facilities of larger LNG projects. It will be a floating development, but again a massive project that will allow some of those smaller, potentially stranded, gas fields to be developed. I acknowledge the role of the former Premier in the Pluto project, which he personally and successfully handled. Woodside Petroleum announced today that it would go into front-end engineering design for trains 2 and 3 of Pluto. All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
Members are aware that a few weeks ago I went to China and visited all the potential major customers of the Gorgon project and other projects. I am not saying that that was absolutely critical to the individual contracts, but I worked hard for this state to reassure the Chinese government officials and major state-owned enterprises about the importance to this government of these contracts and of our confidence in the projects. I had to do that because, as I have said before, Australia’s relationship with China is extremely brittle. That is underestimated by most of the Australian media and most Australian enterprises. Although I knew it was coming, I was pleased that ExxonMobil, a 25 per cent partner in Gorgon, announced its sale of 2.25 million tonnes of gas to PetroChina. It is a $50 billion sale, but it is only 2.25 million tonnes, and Gorgon will produce 30 million tonnes a year. A whole series of massive overlapping contracts have been entered into. What remains is a final investment decision by the three joint venture partners, then final approval by the state for construction on Barrow Island, and then final approval from the commonwealth for production licences for the gas reserves. We are not quite at that point, but we are very close to it. I attended a brief function this morning at which an agreement was announced between Santos, an Australian company, and the French group GFD Suez, the largest single utility in the world and the largest energy player in gas in Europe, to come together to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate fields. These are small gas fields to the north of Wyndham. They could not of themselves support the major pipelines, production jackets and onshore facilities of larger LNG projects. It will be a floating development, but again a massive project that will allow some of those smaller, potentially stranded, gas fields to be developed. I acknowledge the role of the former Premier in the Pluto project, which he personally and successfully handled. Woodside Petroleum announced today that it would go into front-end engineering design for trains 2 and 3 of Pluto. All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
Although I knew it was coming, I was pleased that ExxonMobil, a 25 per cent partner in Gorgon, announced its sale of 2.25 million tonnes of gas to PetroChina. It is a $50 billion sale, but it is only 2.25 million tonnes, and Gorgon will produce 30 million tonnes a year. A whole series of massive overlapping contracts have been entered into. What remains is a final investment decision by the three joint venture partners, then final approval by the state for construction on Barrow Island, and then final approval from the commonwealth for production licences for the gas reserves. We are not quite at that point, but we are very close to it. I attended a brief function this morning at which an agreement was announced between Santos, an Australian company, and the French group GFD Suez, the largest single utility in the world and the largest energy player in gas in Europe, to come together to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate fields. These are small gas fields to the north of Wyndham. They could not of themselves support the major pipelines, production jackets and onshore facilities of larger LNG projects. It will be a floating development, but again a massive project that will allow some of those smaller, potentially stranded, gas fields to be developed. I acknowledge the role of the former Premier in the Pluto project, which he personally and successfully handled. Woodside Petroleum announced today that it would go into front-end engineering design for trains 2 and 3 of Pluto. All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
I attended a brief function this morning at which an agreement was announced between Santos, an Australian company, and the French group GFD Suez, the largest single utility in the world and the largest energy player in gas in Europe, to come together to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate fields. These are small gas fields to the north of Wyndham. They could not of themselves support the major pipelines, production jackets and onshore facilities of larger LNG projects. It will be a floating development, but again a massive project that will allow some of those smaller, potentially stranded, gas fields to be developed. I acknowledge the role of the former Premier in the Pluto project, which he personally and successfully handled. Woodside Petroleum announced today that it would go into front-end engineering design for trains 2 and 3 of Pluto. All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
Mr T.G. Stephens interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Pilbara! Mr C.J. BARNETT replied: We can bury Labor though. I thank the member for North West — Mr D.A. Templeman interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Mandurah! Yesterday I cut question time short. I do not want to do the same today. I would like some respect from members on both sides in this place for the members who ask and answer questions. Mr C.J. BARNETT : I thank the member for North West for the question. The observation that he made in his question is correct. There has been an extraordinary series of announcements and developments, particularly in the liquefied natural gas industry, over just the past three days. As he is the member representing the area—I hope he is about to be a member of the government—I will look to him to play a key role in helping to manage those issues in his electorate, particularly some of the broad social and economic issues. The reality is that large projects have a long gestation period. The gas for the Gorgon project, for example, was discovered in the early 1970s. I dealt with it as a minister in the 1990s, the Labor government dealt with it over seven years and this government has been dealing with it over the past year. The Liberal-National government is focused on project development and approval. The intensity—I emphasise that—the intensity with which we have dealt with major projects in this state, and particularly Gorgon, means that this project is on the cusp of proceeding. It is the largest resource development in this nation’s history and it is one of the largest projects on the planet. I thank the people in my office and the Ministers for Environment, Planning, Regional Development, the Treasurer and others for their efforts. There has been an incredible intensity of effort over the past six months on the Gorgon project, with all its complexities and different issues. The announcements started with environmental approval on 10 September from the Minister for the Environment and the Environmental Protection Authority for the Gorgon project. This week we have seen much more happen. After an intense period of negotiation, principally between my office and the Prime Minister’s office, it was agreed on Monday and endorsed by both federal and state cabinets that the state and commonwealth governments would cover the long-term liability of the carbon dioxide that is to be re-injected below Barrow Island. The prospect of that gas escaping is remote. It may never happen. If it does happen, it may happen in thousands of years. Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon the government to accept that responsibility. At one stage the commonwealth government thought that the state should accept 100 per cent of the liability, but that was unacceptable. After all, we did not share in the revenue stream from the project. At the end of the negotiation, we have agreed that the commonwealth will accept 80 per cent of the liability and the state will accept 20 per cent. As part of that negotiation, the commonwealth government has agreed that the state will receive $100 million a year in revenue from Gorgon. We will enter into further discussions about bringing that forward so that we can do the necessary work that the member would be looking for to be done in his electorate to ensure that economic and social infrastructure and training are up to speed for that project. That was a significant step. Members are aware that a few weeks ago I went to China and visited all the potential major customers of the Gorgon project and other projects. I am not saying that that was absolutely critical to the individual contracts, but I worked hard for this state to reassure the Chinese government officials and major state-owned enterprises about the importance to this government of these contracts and of our confidence in the projects. I had to do that because, as I have said before, Australia’s relationship with China is extremely brittle. That is underestimated by most of the Australian media and most Australian enterprises. Although I knew it was coming, I was pleased that ExxonMobil, a 25 per cent partner in Gorgon, announced its sale of 2.25 million tonnes of gas to PetroChina. It is a $50 billion sale, but it is only 2.25 million tonnes, and Gorgon will produce 30 million tonnes a year. A whole series of massive overlapping contracts have been entered into. What remains is a final investment decision by the three joint venture partners, then final approval by the state for construction on Barrow Island, and then final approval from the commonwealth for production licences for the gas reserves. We are not quite at that point, but we are very close to it. I attended a brief function this morning at which an agreement was announced between Santos, an Australian company, and the French group GFD Suez, the largest single utility in the world and the largest energy player in gas in Europe, to come together to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate fields. These are small gas fields to the north of Wyndham. They could not of themselves support the major pipelines, production jackets and onshore facilities of larger LNG projects. It will be a floating development, but again a massive project that will allow some of those smaller, potentially stranded, gas fields to be developed. I acknowledge the role of the former Premier in the Pluto project, which he personally and successfully handled. Woodside Petroleum announced today that it would go into front-end engineering design for trains 2 and 3 of Pluto. All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
The SPEAKER : Member for Pilbara! Mr C.J. BARNETT replied: We can bury Labor though. I thank the member for North West — Mr D.A. Templeman interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Mandurah! Yesterday I cut question time short. I do not want to do the same today. I would like some respect from members on both sides in this place for the members who ask and answer questions. Mr C.J. BARNETT : I thank the member for North West for the question. The observation that he made in his question is correct. There has been an extraordinary series of announcements and developments, particularly in the liquefied natural gas industry, over just the past three days. As he is the member representing the area—I hope he is about to be a member of the government—I will look to him to play a key role in helping to manage those issues in his electorate, particularly some of the broad social and economic issues. The reality is that large projects have a long gestation period. The gas for the Gorgon project, for example, was discovered in the early 1970s. I dealt with it as a minister in the 1990s, the Labor government dealt with it over seven years and this government has been dealing with it over the past year. The Liberal-National government is focused on project development and approval. The intensity—I emphasise that—the intensity with which we have dealt with major projects in this state, and particularly Gorgon, means that this project is on the cusp of proceeding. It is the largest resource development in this nation’s history and it is one of the largest projects on the planet. I thank the people in my office and the Ministers for Environment, Planning, Regional Development, the Treasurer and others for their efforts. There has been an incredible intensity of effort over the past six months on the Gorgon project, with all its complexities and different issues. The announcements started with environmental approval on 10 September from the Minister for the Environment and the Environmental Protection Authority for the Gorgon project. This week we have seen much more happen. After an intense period of negotiation, principally between my office and the Prime Minister’s office, it was agreed on Monday and endorsed by both federal and state cabinets that the state and commonwealth governments would cover the long-term liability of the carbon dioxide that is to be re-injected below Barrow Island. The prospect of that gas escaping is remote. It may never happen. If it does happen, it may happen in thousands of years. Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon the government to accept that responsibility. At one stage the commonwealth government thought that the state should accept 100 per cent of the liability, but that was unacceptable. After all, we did not share in the revenue stream from the project. At the end of the negotiation, we have agreed that the commonwealth will accept 80 per cent of the liability and the state will accept 20 per cent. As part of that negotiation, the commonwealth government has agreed that the state will receive $100 million a year in revenue from Gorgon. We will enter into further discussions about bringing that forward so that we can do the necessary work that the member would be looking for to be done in his electorate to ensure that economic and social infrastructure and training are up to speed for that project. That was a significant step. Members are aware that a few weeks ago I went to China and visited all the potential major customers of the Gorgon project and other projects. I am not saying that that was absolutely critical to the individual contracts, but I worked hard for this state to reassure the Chinese government officials and major state-owned enterprises about the importance to this government of these contracts and of our confidence in the projects. I had to do that because, as I have said before, Australia’s relationship with China is extremely brittle. That is underestimated by most of the Australian media and most Australian enterprises. Although I knew it was coming, I was pleased that ExxonMobil, a 25 per cent partner in Gorgon, announced its sale of 2.25 million tonnes of gas to PetroChina. It is a $50 billion sale, but it is only 2.25 million tonnes, and Gorgon will produce 30 million tonnes a year. A whole series of massive overlapping contracts have been entered into. What remains is a final investment decision by the three joint venture partners, then final approval by the state for construction on Barrow Island, and then final approval from the commonwealth for production licences for the gas reserves. We are not quite at that point, but we are very close to it. I attended a brief function this morning at which an agreement was announced between Santos, an Australian company, and the French group GFD Suez, the largest single utility in the world and the largest energy player in gas in Europe, to come together to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate fields. These are small gas fields to the north of Wyndham. They could not of themselves support the major pipelines, production jackets and onshore facilities of larger LNG projects. It will be a floating development, but again a massive project that will allow some of those smaller, potentially stranded, gas fields to be developed. I acknowledge the role of the former Premier in the Pluto project, which he personally and successfully handled. Woodside Petroleum announced today that it would go into front-end engineering design for trains 2 and 3 of Pluto. All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
Mr C.J. BARNETT replied: We can bury Labor though. I thank the member for North West — Mr D.A. Templeman interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Mandurah! Yesterday I cut question time short. I do not want to do the same today. I would like some respect from members on both sides in this place for the members who ask and answer questions. Mr C.J. BARNETT : I thank the member for North West for the question. The observation that he made in his question is correct. There has been an extraordinary series of announcements and developments, particularly in the liquefied natural gas industry, over just the past three days. As he is the member representing the area—I hope he is about to be a member of the government—I will look to him to play a key role in helping to manage those issues in his electorate, particularly some of the broad social and economic issues. The reality is that large projects have a long gestation period. The gas for the Gorgon project, for example, was discovered in the early 1970s. I dealt with it as a minister in the 1990s, the Labor government dealt with it over seven years and this government has been dealing with it over the past year. The Liberal-National government is focused on project development and approval. The intensity—I emphasise that—the intensity with which we have dealt with major projects in this state, and particularly Gorgon, means that this project is on the cusp of proceeding. It is the largest resource development in this nation’s history and it is one of the largest projects on the planet. I thank the people in my office and the Ministers for Environment, Planning, Regional Development, the Treasurer and others for their efforts. There has been an incredible intensity of effort over the past six months on the Gorgon project, with all its complexities and different issues. The announcements started with environmental approval on 10 September from the Minister for the Environment and the Environmental Protection Authority for the Gorgon project. This week we have seen much more happen. After an intense period of negotiation, principally between my office and the Prime Minister’s office, it was agreed on Monday and endorsed by both federal and state cabinets that the state and commonwealth governments would cover the long-term liability of the carbon dioxide that is to be re-injected below Barrow Island. The prospect of that gas escaping is remote. It may never happen. If it does happen, it may happen in thousands of years. Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon the government to accept that responsibility. At one stage the commonwealth government thought that the state should accept 100 per cent of the liability, but that was unacceptable. After all, we did not share in the revenue stream from the project. At the end of the negotiation, we have agreed that the commonwealth will accept 80 per cent of the liability and the state will accept 20 per cent. As part of that negotiation, the commonwealth government has agreed that the state will receive $100 million a year in revenue from Gorgon. We will enter into further discussions about bringing that forward so that we can do the necessary work that the member would be looking for to be done in his electorate to ensure that economic and social infrastructure and training are up to speed for that project. That was a significant step. Members are aware that a few weeks ago I went to China and visited all the potential major customers of the Gorgon project and other projects. I am not saying that that was absolutely critical to the individual contracts, but I worked hard for this state to reassure the Chinese government officials and major state-owned enterprises about the importance to this government of these contracts and of our confidence in the projects. I had to do that because, as I have said before, Australia’s relationship with China is extremely brittle. That is underestimated by most of the Australian media and most Australian enterprises. Although I knew it was coming, I was pleased that ExxonMobil, a 25 per cent partner in Gorgon, announced its sale of 2.25 million tonnes of gas to PetroChina. It is a $50 billion sale, but it is only 2.25 million tonnes, and Gorgon will produce 30 million tonnes a year. A whole series of massive overlapping contracts have been entered into. What remains is a final investment decision by the three joint venture partners, then final approval by the state for construction on Barrow Island, and then final approval from the commonwealth for production licences for the gas reserves. We are not quite at that point, but we are very close to it. I attended a brief function this morning at which an agreement was announced between Santos, an Australian company, and the French group GFD Suez, the largest single utility in the world and the largest energy player in gas in Europe, to come together to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate fields. These are small gas fields to the north of Wyndham. They could not of themselves support the major pipelines, production jackets and onshore facilities of larger LNG projects. It will be a floating development, but again a massive project that will allow some of those smaller, potentially stranded, gas fields to be developed. I acknowledge the role of the former Premier in the Pluto project, which he personally and successfully handled. Woodside Petroleum announced today that it would go into front-end engineering design for trains 2 and 3 of Pluto. All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
We can bury Labor though. I thank the member for North West — Mr D.A. Templeman interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Mandurah! Yesterday I cut question time short. I do not want to do the same today. I would like some respect from members on both sides in this place for the members who ask and answer questions. Mr C.J. BARNETT : I thank the member for North West for the question. The observation that he made in his question is correct. There has been an extraordinary series of announcements and developments, particularly in the liquefied natural gas industry, over just the past three days. As he is the member representing the area—I hope he is about to be a member of the government—I will look to him to play a key role in helping to manage those issues in his electorate, particularly some of the broad social and economic issues. The reality is that large projects have a long gestation period. The gas for the Gorgon project, for example, was discovered in the early 1970s. I dealt with it as a minister in the 1990s, the Labor government dealt with it over seven years and this government has been dealing with it over the past year. The Liberal-National government is focused on project development and approval. The intensity—I emphasise that—the intensity with which we have dealt with major projects in this state, and particularly Gorgon, means that this project is on the cusp of proceeding. It is the largest resource development in this nation’s history and it is one of the largest projects on the planet. I thank the people in my office and the Ministers for Environment, Planning, Regional Development, the Treasurer and others for their efforts. There has been an incredible intensity of effort over the past six months on the Gorgon project, with all its complexities and different issues. The announcements started with environmental approval on 10 September from the Minister for the Environment and the Environmental Protection Authority for the Gorgon project. This week we have seen much more happen. After an intense period of negotiation, principally between my office and the Prime Minister’s office, it was agreed on Monday and endorsed by both federal and state cabinets that the state and commonwealth governments would cover the long-term liability of the carbon dioxide that is to be re-injected below Barrow Island. The prospect of that gas escaping is remote. It may never happen. If it does happen, it may happen in thousands of years. Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon the government to accept that responsibility. At one stage the commonwealth government thought that the state should accept 100 per cent of the liability, but that was unacceptable. After all, we did not share in the revenue stream from the project. At the end of the negotiation, we have agreed that the commonwealth will accept 80 per cent of the liability and the state will accept 20 per cent. As part of that negotiation, the commonwealth government has agreed that the state will receive $100 million a year in revenue from Gorgon. We will enter into further discussions about bringing that forward so that we can do the necessary work that the member would be looking for to be done in his electorate to ensure that economic and social infrastructure and training are up to speed for that project. That was a significant step. Members are aware that a few weeks ago I went to China and visited all the potential major customers of the Gorgon project and other projects. I am not saying that that was absolutely critical to the individual contracts, but I worked hard for this state to reassure the Chinese government officials and major state-owned enterprises about the importance to this government of these contracts and of our confidence in the projects. I had to do that because, as I have said before, Australia’s relationship with China is extremely brittle. That is underestimated by most of the Australian media and most Australian enterprises. Although I knew it was coming, I was pleased that ExxonMobil, a 25 per cent partner in Gorgon, announced its sale of 2.25 million tonnes of gas to PetroChina. It is a $50 billion sale, but it is only 2.25 million tonnes, and Gorgon will produce 30 million tonnes a year. A whole series of massive overlapping contracts have been entered into. What remains is a final investment decision by the three joint venture partners, then final approval by the state for construction on Barrow Island, and then final approval from the commonwealth for production licences for the gas reserves. We are not quite at that point, but we are very close to it. I attended a brief function this morning at which an agreement was announced between Santos, an Australian company, and the French group GFD Suez, the largest single utility in the world and the largest energy player in gas in Europe, to come together to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate fields. These are small gas fields to the north of Wyndham. They could not of themselves support the major pipelines, production jackets and onshore facilities of larger LNG projects. It will be a floating development, but again a massive project that will allow some of those smaller, potentially stranded, gas fields to be developed. I acknowledge the role of the former Premier in the Pluto project, which he personally and successfully handled. Woodside Petroleum announced today that it would go into front-end engineering design for trains 2 and 3 of Pluto. All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
I thank the member for North West — Mr D.A. Templeman interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Mandurah! Yesterday I cut question time short. I do not want to do the same today. I would like some respect from members on both sides in this place for the members who ask and answer questions. Mr C.J. BARNETT : I thank the member for North West for the question. The observation that he made in his question is correct. There has been an extraordinary series of announcements and developments, particularly in the liquefied natural gas industry, over just the past three days. As he is the member representing the area—I hope he is about to be a member of the government—I will look to him to play a key role in helping to manage those issues in his electorate, particularly some of the broad social and economic issues. The reality is that large projects have a long gestation period. The gas for the Gorgon project, for example, was discovered in the early 1970s. I dealt with it as a minister in the 1990s, the Labor government dealt with it over seven years and this government has been dealing with it over the past year. The Liberal-National government is focused on project development and approval. The intensity—I emphasise that—the intensity with which we have dealt with major projects in this state, and particularly Gorgon, means that this project is on the cusp of proceeding. It is the largest resource development in this nation’s history and it is one of the largest projects on the planet. I thank the people in my office and the Ministers for Environment, Planning, Regional Development, the Treasurer and others for their efforts. There has been an incredible intensity of effort over the past six months on the Gorgon project, with all its complexities and different issues. The announcements started with environmental approval on 10 September from the Minister for the Environment and the Environmental Protection Authority for the Gorgon project. This week we have seen much more happen. After an intense period of negotiation, principally between my office and the Prime Minister’s office, it was agreed on Monday and endorsed by both federal and state cabinets that the state and commonwealth governments would cover the long-term liability of the carbon dioxide that is to be re-injected below Barrow Island. The prospect of that gas escaping is remote. It may never happen. If it does happen, it may happen in thousands of years. Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon the government to accept that responsibility. At one stage the commonwealth government thought that the state should accept 100 per cent of the liability, but that was unacceptable. After all, we did not share in the revenue stream from the project. At the end of the negotiation, we have agreed that the commonwealth will accept 80 per cent of the liability and the state will accept 20 per cent. As part of that negotiation, the commonwealth government has agreed that the state will receive $100 million a year in revenue from Gorgon. We will enter into further discussions about bringing that forward so that we can do the necessary work that the member would be looking for to be done in his electorate to ensure that economic and social infrastructure and training are up to speed for that project. That was a significant step. Members are aware that a few weeks ago I went to China and visited all the potential major customers of the Gorgon project and other projects. I am not saying that that was absolutely critical to the individual contracts, but I worked hard for this state to reassure the Chinese government officials and major state-owned enterprises about the importance to this government of these contracts and of our confidence in the projects. I had to do that because, as I have said before, Australia’s relationship with China is extremely brittle. That is underestimated by most of the Australian media and most Australian enterprises. Although I knew it was coming, I was pleased that ExxonMobil, a 25 per cent partner in Gorgon, announced its sale of 2.25 million tonnes of gas to PetroChina. It is a $50 billion sale, but it is only 2.25 million tonnes, and Gorgon will produce 30 million tonnes a year. A whole series of massive overlapping contracts have been entered into. What remains is a final investment decision by the three joint venture partners, then final approval by the state for construction on Barrow Island, and then final approval from the commonwealth for production licences for the gas reserves. We are not quite at that point, but we are very close to it. I attended a brief function this morning at which an agreement was announced between Santos, an Australian company, and the French group GFD Suez, the largest single utility in the world and the largest energy player in gas in Europe, to come together to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate fields. These are small gas fields to the north of Wyndham. They could not of themselves support the major pipelines, production jackets and onshore facilities of larger LNG projects. It will be a floating development, but again a massive project that will allow some of those smaller, potentially stranded, gas fields to be developed. I acknowledge the role of the former Premier in the Pluto project, which he personally and successfully handled. Woodside Petroleum announced today that it would go into front-end engineering design for trains 2 and 3 of Pluto. All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
Mr D.A. Templeman interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Mandurah! Yesterday I cut question time short. I do not want to do the same today. I would like some respect from members on both sides in this place for the members who ask and answer questions. Mr C.J. BARNETT : I thank the member for North West for the question. The observation that he made in his question is correct. There has been an extraordinary series of announcements and developments, particularly in the liquefied natural gas industry, over just the past three days. As he is the member representing the area—I hope he is about to be a member of the government—I will look to him to play a key role in helping to manage those issues in his electorate, particularly some of the broad social and economic issues. The reality is that large projects have a long gestation period. The gas for the Gorgon project, for example, was discovered in the early 1970s. I dealt with it as a minister in the 1990s, the Labor government dealt with it over seven years and this government has been dealing with it over the past year. The Liberal-National government is focused on project development and approval. The intensity—I emphasise that—the intensity with which we have dealt with major projects in this state, and particularly Gorgon, means that this project is on the cusp of proceeding. It is the largest resource development in this nation’s history and it is one of the largest projects on the planet. I thank the people in my office and the Ministers for Environment, Planning, Regional Development, the Treasurer and others for their efforts. There has been an incredible intensity of effort over the past six months on the Gorgon project, with all its complexities and different issues. The announcements started with environmental approval on 10 September from the Minister for the Environment and the Environmental Protection Authority for the Gorgon project. This week we have seen much more happen. After an intense period of negotiation, principally between my office and the Prime Minister’s office, it was agreed on Monday and endorsed by both federal and state cabinets that the state and commonwealth governments would cover the long-term liability of the carbon dioxide that is to be re-injected below Barrow Island. The prospect of that gas escaping is remote. It may never happen. If it does happen, it may happen in thousands of years. Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon the government to accept that responsibility. At one stage the commonwealth government thought that the state should accept 100 per cent of the liability, but that was unacceptable. After all, we did not share in the revenue stream from the project. At the end of the negotiation, we have agreed that the commonwealth will accept 80 per cent of the liability and the state will accept 20 per cent. As part of that negotiation, the commonwealth government has agreed that the state will receive $100 million a year in revenue from Gorgon. We will enter into further discussions about bringing that forward so that we can do the necessary work that the member would be looking for to be done in his electorate to ensure that economic and social infrastructure and training are up to speed for that project. That was a significant step. Members are aware that a few weeks ago I went to China and visited all the potential major customers of the Gorgon project and other projects. I am not saying that that was absolutely critical to the individual contracts, but I worked hard for this state to reassure the Chinese government officials and major state-owned enterprises about the importance to this government of these contracts and of our confidence in the projects. I had to do that because, as I have said before, Australia’s relationship with China is extremely brittle. That is underestimated by most of the Australian media and most Australian enterprises. Although I knew it was coming, I was pleased that ExxonMobil, a 25 per cent partner in Gorgon, announced its sale of 2.25 million tonnes of gas to PetroChina. It is a $50 billion sale, but it is only 2.25 million tonnes, and Gorgon will produce 30 million tonnes a year. A whole series of massive overlapping contracts have been entered into. What remains is a final investment decision by the three joint venture partners, then final approval by the state for construction on Barrow Island, and then final approval from the commonwealth for production licences for the gas reserves. We are not quite at that point, but we are very close to it. I attended a brief function this morning at which an agreement was announced between Santos, an Australian company, and the French group GFD Suez, the largest single utility in the world and the largest energy player in gas in Europe, to come together to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate fields. These are small gas fields to the north of Wyndham. They could not of themselves support the major pipelines, production jackets and onshore facilities of larger LNG projects. It will be a floating development, but again a massive project that will allow some of those smaller, potentially stranded, gas fields to be developed. I acknowledge the role of the former Premier in the Pluto project, which he personally and successfully handled. Woodside Petroleum announced today that it would go into front-end engineering design for trains 2 and 3 of Pluto. All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
The SPEAKER : Member for Mandurah! Yesterday I cut question time short. I do not want to do the same today. I would like some respect from members on both sides in this place for the members who ask and answer questions. Mr C.J. BARNETT : I thank the member for North West for the question. The observation that he made in his question is correct. There has been an extraordinary series of announcements and developments, particularly in the liquefied natural gas industry, over just the past three days. As he is the member representing the area—I hope he is about to be a member of the government—I will look to him to play a key role in helping to manage those issues in his electorate, particularly some of the broad social and economic issues. The reality is that large projects have a long gestation period. The gas for the Gorgon project, for example, was discovered in the early 1970s. I dealt with it as a minister in the 1990s, the Labor government dealt with it over seven years and this government has been dealing with it over the past year. The Liberal-National government is focused on project development and approval. The intensity—I emphasise that—the intensity with which we have dealt with major projects in this state, and particularly Gorgon, means that this project is on the cusp of proceeding. It is the largest resource development in this nation’s history and it is one of the largest projects on the planet. I thank the people in my office and the Ministers for Environment, Planning, Regional Development, the Treasurer and others for their efforts. There has been an incredible intensity of effort over the past six months on the Gorgon project, with all its complexities and different issues. The announcements started with environmental approval on 10 September from the Minister for the Environment and the Environmental Protection Authority for the Gorgon project. This week we have seen much more happen. After an intense period of negotiation, principally between my office and the Prime Minister’s office, it was agreed on Monday and endorsed by both federal and state cabinets that the state and commonwealth governments would cover the long-term liability of the carbon dioxide that is to be re-injected below Barrow Island. The prospect of that gas escaping is remote. It may never happen. If it does happen, it may happen in thousands of years. Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon the government to accept that responsibility. At one stage the commonwealth government thought that the state should accept 100 per cent of the liability, but that was unacceptable. After all, we did not share in the revenue stream from the project. At the end of the negotiation, we have agreed that the commonwealth will accept 80 per cent of the liability and the state will accept 20 per cent. As part of that negotiation, the commonwealth government has agreed that the state will receive $100 million a year in revenue from Gorgon. We will enter into further discussions about bringing that forward so that we can do the necessary work that the member would be looking for to be done in his electorate to ensure that economic and social infrastructure and training are up to speed for that project. That was a significant step. Members are aware that a few weeks ago I went to China and visited all the potential major customers of the Gorgon project and other projects. I am not saying that that was absolutely critical to the individual contracts, but I worked hard for this state to reassure the Chinese government officials and major state-owned enterprises about the importance to this government of these contracts and of our confidence in the projects. I had to do that because, as I have said before, Australia’s relationship with China is extremely brittle. That is underestimated by most of the Australian media and most Australian enterprises. Although I knew it was coming, I was pleased that ExxonMobil, a 25 per cent partner in Gorgon, announced its sale of 2.25 million tonnes of gas to PetroChina. It is a $50 billion sale, but it is only 2.25 million tonnes, and Gorgon will produce 30 million tonnes a year. A whole series of massive overlapping contracts have been entered into. What remains is a final investment decision by the three joint venture partners, then final approval by the state for construction on Barrow Island, and then final approval from the commonwealth for production licences for the gas reserves. We are not quite at that point, but we are very close to it. I attended a brief function this morning at which an agreement was announced between Santos, an Australian company, and the French group GFD Suez, the largest single utility in the world and the largest energy player in gas in Europe, to come together to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate fields. These are small gas fields to the north of Wyndham. They could not of themselves support the major pipelines, production jackets and onshore facilities of larger LNG projects. It will be a floating development, but again a massive project that will allow some of those smaller, potentially stranded, gas fields to be developed. I acknowledge the role of the former Premier in the Pluto project, which he personally and successfully handled. Woodside Petroleum announced today that it would go into front-end engineering design for trains 2 and 3 of Pluto. All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
Mr C.J. BARNETT : I thank the member for North West for the question. The observation that he made in his question is correct. There has been an extraordinary series of announcements and developments, particularly in the liquefied natural gas industry, over just the past three days. As he is the member representing the area—I hope he is about to be a member of the government—I will look to him to play a key role in helping to manage those issues in his electorate, particularly some of the broad social and economic issues. The reality is that large projects have a long gestation period. The gas for the Gorgon project, for example, was discovered in the early 1970s. I dealt with it as a minister in the 1990s, the Labor government dealt with it over seven years and this government has been dealing with it over the past year. The Liberal-National government is focused on project development and approval. The intensity—I emphasise that—the intensity with which we have dealt with major projects in this state, and particularly Gorgon, means that this project is on the cusp of proceeding. It is the largest resource development in this nation’s history and it is one of the largest projects on the planet. I thank the people in my office and the Ministers for Environment, Planning, Regional Development, the Treasurer and others for their efforts. There has been an incredible intensity of effort over the past six months on the Gorgon project, with all its complexities and different issues. The announcements started with environmental approval on 10 September from the Minister for the Environment and the Environmental Protection Authority for the Gorgon project. This week we have seen much more happen. After an intense period of negotiation, principally between my office and the Prime Minister’s office, it was agreed on Monday and endorsed by both federal and state cabinets that the state and commonwealth governments would cover the long-term liability of the carbon dioxide that is to be re-injected below Barrow Island. The prospect of that gas escaping is remote. It may never happen. If it does happen, it may happen in thousands of years. Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon the government to accept that responsibility. At one stage the commonwealth government thought that the state should accept 100 per cent of the liability, but that was unacceptable. After all, we did not share in the revenue stream from the project. At the end of the negotiation, we have agreed that the commonwealth will accept 80 per cent of the liability and the state will accept 20 per cent. As part of that negotiation, the commonwealth government has agreed that the state will receive $100 million a year in revenue from Gorgon. We will enter into further discussions about bringing that forward so that we can do the necessary work that the member would be looking for to be done in his electorate to ensure that economic and social infrastructure and training are up to speed for that project. That was a significant step. Members are aware that a few weeks ago I went to China and visited all the potential major customers of the Gorgon project and other projects. I am not saying that that was absolutely critical to the individual contracts, but I worked hard for this state to reassure the Chinese government officials and major state-owned enterprises about the importance to this government of these contracts and of our confidence in the projects. I had to do that because, as I have said before, Australia’s relationship with China is extremely brittle. That is underestimated by most of the Australian media and most Australian enterprises. Although I knew it was coming, I was pleased that ExxonMobil, a 25 per cent partner in Gorgon, announced its sale of 2.25 million tonnes of gas to PetroChina. It is a $50 billion sale, but it is only 2.25 million tonnes, and Gorgon will produce 30 million tonnes a year. A whole series of massive overlapping contracts have been entered into. What remains is a final investment decision by the three joint venture partners, then final approval by the state for construction on Barrow Island, and then final approval from the commonwealth for production licences for the gas reserves. We are not quite at that point, but we are very close to it. I attended a brief function this morning at which an agreement was announced between Santos, an Australian company, and the French group GFD Suez, the largest single utility in the world and the largest energy player in gas in Europe, to come together to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate fields. These are small gas fields to the north of Wyndham. They could not of themselves support the major pipelines, production jackets and onshore facilities of larger LNG projects. It will be a floating development, but again a massive project that will allow some of those smaller, potentially stranded, gas fields to be developed. I acknowledge the role of the former Premier in the Pluto project, which he personally and successfully handled. Woodside Petroleum announced today that it would go into front-end engineering design for trains 2 and 3 of Pluto. All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
The reality is that large projects have a long gestation period. The gas for the Gorgon project, for example, was discovered in the early 1970s. I dealt with it as a minister in the 1990s, the Labor government dealt with it over seven years and this government has been dealing with it over the past year. The Liberal-National government is focused on project development and approval. The intensity—I emphasise that—the intensity with which we have dealt with major projects in this state, and particularly Gorgon, means that this project is on the cusp of proceeding. It is the largest resource development in this nation’s history and it is one of the largest projects on the planet. I thank the people in my office and the Ministers for Environment, Planning, Regional Development, the Treasurer and others for their efforts. There has been an incredible intensity of effort over the past six months on the Gorgon project, with all its complexities and different issues. The announcements started with environmental approval on 10 September from the Minister for the Environment and the Environmental Protection Authority for the Gorgon project. This week we have seen much more happen. After an intense period of negotiation, principally between my office and the Prime Minister’s office, it was agreed on Monday and endorsed by both federal and state cabinets that the state and commonwealth governments would cover the long-term liability of the carbon dioxide that is to be re-injected below Barrow Island. The prospect of that gas escaping is remote. It may never happen. If it does happen, it may happen in thousands of years. Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon the government to accept that responsibility. At one stage the commonwealth government thought that the state should accept 100 per cent of the liability, but that was unacceptable. After all, we did not share in the revenue stream from the project. At the end of the negotiation, we have agreed that the commonwealth will accept 80 per cent of the liability and the state will accept 20 per cent. As part of that negotiation, the commonwealth government has agreed that the state will receive $100 million a year in revenue from Gorgon. We will enter into further discussions about bringing that forward so that we can do the necessary work that the member would be looking for to be done in his electorate to ensure that economic and social infrastructure and training are up to speed for that project. That was a significant step. Members are aware that a few weeks ago I went to China and visited all the potential major customers of the Gorgon project and other projects. I am not saying that that was absolutely critical to the individual contracts, but I worked hard for this state to reassure the Chinese government officials and major state-owned enterprises about the importance to this government of these contracts and of our confidence in the projects. I had to do that because, as I have said before, Australia’s relationship with China is extremely brittle. That is underestimated by most of the Australian media and most Australian enterprises. Although I knew it was coming, I was pleased that ExxonMobil, a 25 per cent partner in Gorgon, announced its sale of 2.25 million tonnes of gas to PetroChina. It is a $50 billion sale, but it is only 2.25 million tonnes, and Gorgon will produce 30 million tonnes a year. A whole series of massive overlapping contracts have been entered into. What remains is a final investment decision by the three joint venture partners, then final approval by the state for construction on Barrow Island, and then final approval from the commonwealth for production licences for the gas reserves. We are not quite at that point, but we are very close to it. I attended a brief function this morning at which an agreement was announced between Santos, an Australian company, and the French group GFD Suez, the largest single utility in the world and the largest energy player in gas in Europe, to come together to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate fields. These are small gas fields to the north of Wyndham. They could not of themselves support the major pipelines, production jackets and onshore facilities of larger LNG projects. It will be a floating development, but again a massive project that will allow some of those smaller, potentially stranded, gas fields to be developed. I acknowledge the role of the former Premier in the Pluto project, which he personally and successfully handled. Woodside Petroleum announced today that it would go into front-end engineering design for trains 2 and 3 of Pluto. All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
The announcements started with environmental approval on 10 September from the Minister for the Environment and the Environmental Protection Authority for the Gorgon project. This week we have seen much more happen. After an intense period of negotiation, principally between my office and the Prime Minister’s office, it was agreed on Monday and endorsed by both federal and state cabinets that the state and commonwealth governments would cover the long-term liability of the carbon dioxide that is to be re-injected below Barrow Island. The prospect of that gas escaping is remote. It may never happen. If it does happen, it may happen in thousands of years. Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon the government to accept that responsibility. At one stage the commonwealth government thought that the state should accept 100 per cent of the liability, but that was unacceptable. After all, we did not share in the revenue stream from the project. At the end of the negotiation, we have agreed that the commonwealth will accept 80 per cent of the liability and the state will accept 20 per cent. As part of that negotiation, the commonwealth government has agreed that the state will receive $100 million a year in revenue from Gorgon. We will enter into further discussions about bringing that forward so that we can do the necessary work that the member would be looking for to be done in his electorate to ensure that economic and social infrastructure and training are up to speed for that project. That was a significant step. Members are aware that a few weeks ago I went to China and visited all the potential major customers of the Gorgon project and other projects. I am not saying that that was absolutely critical to the individual contracts, but I worked hard for this state to reassure the Chinese government officials and major state-owned enterprises about the importance to this government of these contracts and of our confidence in the projects. I had to do that because, as I have said before, Australia’s relationship with China is extremely brittle. That is underestimated by most of the Australian media and most Australian enterprises. Although I knew it was coming, I was pleased that ExxonMobil, a 25 per cent partner in Gorgon, announced its sale of 2.25 million tonnes of gas to PetroChina. It is a $50 billion sale, but it is only 2.25 million tonnes, and Gorgon will produce 30 million tonnes a year. A whole series of massive overlapping contracts have been entered into. What remains is a final investment decision by the three joint venture partners, then final approval by the state for construction on Barrow Island, and then final approval from the commonwealth for production licences for the gas reserves. We are not quite at that point, but we are very close to it. I attended a brief function this morning at which an agreement was announced between Santos, an Australian company, and the French group GFD Suez, the largest single utility in the world and the largest energy player in gas in Europe, to come together to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate fields. These are small gas fields to the north of Wyndham. They could not of themselves support the major pipelines, production jackets and onshore facilities of larger LNG projects. It will be a floating development, but again a massive project that will allow some of those smaller, potentially stranded, gas fields to be developed. I acknowledge the role of the former Premier in the Pluto project, which he personally and successfully handled. Woodside Petroleum announced today that it would go into front-end engineering design for trains 2 and 3 of Pluto. All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
Members are aware that a few weeks ago I went to China and visited all the potential major customers of the Gorgon project and other projects. I am not saying that that was absolutely critical to the individual contracts, but I worked hard for this state to reassure the Chinese government officials and major state-owned enterprises about the importance to this government of these contracts and of our confidence in the projects. I had to do that because, as I have said before, Australia’s relationship with China is extremely brittle. That is underestimated by most of the Australian media and most Australian enterprises. Although I knew it was coming, I was pleased that ExxonMobil, a 25 per cent partner in Gorgon, announced its sale of 2.25 million tonnes of gas to PetroChina. It is a $50 billion sale, but it is only 2.25 million tonnes, and Gorgon will produce 30 million tonnes a year. A whole series of massive overlapping contracts have been entered into. What remains is a final investment decision by the three joint venture partners, then final approval by the state for construction on Barrow Island, and then final approval from the commonwealth for production licences for the gas reserves. We are not quite at that point, but we are very close to it. I attended a brief function this morning at which an agreement was announced between Santos, an Australian company, and the French group GFD Suez, the largest single utility in the world and the largest energy player in gas in Europe, to come together to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate fields. These are small gas fields to the north of Wyndham. They could not of themselves support the major pipelines, production jackets and onshore facilities of larger LNG projects. It will be a floating development, but again a massive project that will allow some of those smaller, potentially stranded, gas fields to be developed. I acknowledge the role of the former Premier in the Pluto project, which he personally and successfully handled. Woodside Petroleum announced today that it would go into front-end engineering design for trains 2 and 3 of Pluto. All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
Although I knew it was coming, I was pleased that ExxonMobil, a 25 per cent partner in Gorgon, announced its sale of 2.25 million tonnes of gas to PetroChina. It is a $50 billion sale, but it is only 2.25 million tonnes, and Gorgon will produce 30 million tonnes a year. A whole series of massive overlapping contracts have been entered into. What remains is a final investment decision by the three joint venture partners, then final approval by the state for construction on Barrow Island, and then final approval from the commonwealth for production licences for the gas reserves. We are not quite at that point, but we are very close to it. I attended a brief function this morning at which an agreement was announced between Santos, an Australian company, and the French group GFD Suez, the largest single utility in the world and the largest energy player in gas in Europe, to come together to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate fields. These are small gas fields to the north of Wyndham. They could not of themselves support the major pipelines, production jackets and onshore facilities of larger LNG projects. It will be a floating development, but again a massive project that will allow some of those smaller, potentially stranded, gas fields to be developed. I acknowledge the role of the former Premier in the Pluto project, which he personally and successfully handled. Woodside Petroleum announced today that it would go into front-end engineering design for trains 2 and 3 of Pluto. All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
I attended a brief function this morning at which an agreement was announced between Santos, an Australian company, and the French group GFD Suez, the largest single utility in the world and the largest energy player in gas in Europe, to come together to develop the Petrel, Tern and Frigate fields. These are small gas fields to the north of Wyndham. They could not of themselves support the major pipelines, production jackets and onshore facilities of larger LNG projects. It will be a floating development, but again a massive project that will allow some of those smaller, potentially stranded, gas fields to be developed. I acknowledge the role of the former Premier in the Pluto project, which he personally and successfully handled. Woodside Petroleum announced today that it would go into front-end engineering design for trains 2 and 3 of Pluto. All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
All of that has happened in three days, and there is a lot more to come. We are heading into an extraordinary period of development. I will not use the word “boom”—we have suffered in the past from exaggeration and hyperbole—but we have a unique opportunity to enter into a sustained period of extraordinary development in the state, and to take Western Australia to a pre-eminent position in the Asia-Pacific region. We need to do it well, and there are a host of issues to deal with. The government will make a series of decisions over the coming weeks on how it is going to proceed. I will make sure, to the best of my ability, that we do not miss the opportunities before us. I welcome the interest of the member for North West, and I assure him that he will be directly involved in dealing with these issues on the ground in his electorate.
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