Australia’s state of New South Wales today launched the first natural gas exploration tender in ten years amid a supply crunch caused by the war in the Middle East.
Reuters reports that to encourage participation, the state government cut the entry fee from A$50,000 to as little as A$1,000. The sums are equal to $35,800 and $716, respectively.
“What we need to do, carefully and methodically, is make sure we are responsibly pulling every lever to support a stable and robust energy grid for decades to come,” the state’s natural resources minister said in a statement.
New South Wales is not the only Australian state rethinking its energy policies amid the crunch. In early April, the state of Queensland urged Australia’s federal government to fast-track the approval of the Taroom Trough project that would see the first new oil development project in the country in 50 years.
The Queensland state government is throwing its support behind the Taroom Trough project for oil extraction at a site west of Brisbane and calls on the federal government to assess the development plan under the National Interest Fast-Track Assessment Pathway, removing delays in bringing mass oil production to market.
Earlier this month, Australia’s government said it was considering using emergency powers to protect domestic natural gas supply in case of a shortfall on its east coast in the third quarter of 2026. New South Wales is among the states most vulnerable to a shortage.
The potential consideration of using such powers would be part of the steps the Albanese government is taking to secure domestic gas supplies for Australian households and industry as the Middle East conflict disrupts global energy markets.
Australian Minister for Resources, Madeleine King, has given notice of her intention to consider using powers under the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism (ADGSM) to protect Australian energy supplies in the event of a possible east coast domestic gas shortfall in the third quarter of 2026, the winter months Down Under.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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