Beach Energy (ASX:BPT) Chief Executive Brett Woods said a domestic gas reservation scheme does not create "a single extra petajoule of natural gas" and risks forcing critical resources to be left underground instead of helping the Australian economy, according to an opinion editorial published in The Australian on Sunday.
Woods said the currently proposed domestic gas reservation scheme forces a transfer of revenue from domestic-focused gas producers to a few large wholesale buyers, who are mostly multinational companies that are foreign-owned or run offshore operations, adding that households and small businesses do not buy gas wholesale and therefore do not benefit from forced short-term lower prices.
The chief executive said Australia's domestic gas price ranks in the lowest quartile of OECD nations, with recent Rystad Energy analysis showing the cost of marginal supply is expected to rise to about AU$13 to AU$14 per gigajoule to underpin new supply, arguing that a forced price of AU$10 per gigajoule is a signal to stop investing in new projects and will leave southern basins underdeveloped.
The company's shares rose more than 1% in recent Monday trade.