Boost for status as major gas producer

MELBOURNE - Australia is increasingly becoming seen as a major gas player, with record production in the past financial year, a new report shows.

The EnergyQuest Quarterly Report on Australia's oil and gas industry found production of all petroleum products rose 3.5 per cent to a record 482.61 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) for the year to June 30.

The result was underpinned by a record 1779 petajoules of combined liquefied natural gas (LNG) and coal seam gas produced, up from 1697 petajoules in 2007/08.

"There was a record total petroleum [product] production ... the reason for that was the record gas production," said EnergyQuest chief Dr Graeme Bethune.

The report said increasing LNG production from the North WestShelf offshore from WesternAustralia was the primary source of growth.

Oil production was flat, with the number of new start-ups only just compensating for a decline in mature fields.

Bethune said Australia had the potential to be one of the world's major gas producers.

"We expect that Australia, in the very near future, will be among the top 10 countries globally measured by the size of its gas reserves."

Australia has the 14th largest known gas reserves in the world and now comes in at number 20 in terms of gas production.

"The size of Australia's gas reserves means that further strong growth in this country's LNG exports is assured," Bethune said.

About 62 per cent of Australia's production of oil equivalents was from the North West Shelf and in Western Australia's Carnarvon basin.

Annual production from the North West Shelf increased by 7.4 per cent and its June quarter production rose by 15.4 per cent compared with the same period a year earlier.

About 16.1 per cent of oil equivalent produced in the last financial year came from the Gippsland region of Victoria, with a further 7.2 per cent from the Cooper Basin near the border of Queensland and South Australia, the report said.

Australia has signed some major energy deals during the pastyear.

The most notable was an agreement for China to annually purchase 2.25 million tonnes of gas from the Gorgon field.

- AAP