Chemistry Australia and its members have welcomed the Federal and NSW Government announcements this morning of plans to increase NSW gas supply by 70 petajoules per year.

The chemistry industry is hopeful the announcement results in critically needed new volumes of affordable gas in NSW and the East Coast gas market, that improve the global competitiveness of Australian industrial gas users.

Chemistry Australia CEO Samantha Read said it was pleasing to see Federal and NSW Government leaders recognise the impact of the gas crisis on the economy and work together to deliver affordable gas where it is urgently needed.

However, Ms Read said the issue of affordability was still top-of-mind for industrial and commercial gas users.

“Chemistry Australia and our members recognise that significantly more work needs to be done to ensure increased gas volumes translate directly into more supply of affordable gas to ensure our sector can remain globally competitive,” said Ms Read.

“We support recent findings of the ACCC of what appears to be an unreasonable gap between what consumers are paying and slumping international tariffs.

“Chemistry Australia and its members are keen to work with Federal and State Governments to ensure the goals set out by the National Gas Objective are realised and that all Australians are able to benefit from a competitive and transparent gas market.”

The Australian chemistry industry is a significant user of Australian gas, driving more than $286 million of local economic activity for every petajoule of gas it consumes.  The sector also contributes $38 billion to Australia’s GDP and supports full-time equivalent employment of more than 212,000 Australians nationwide.