Mr Cox said “Australian companies are very well placed to secure this work because an understanding of Australian conditions, Australian codes and Australian regulations is critical to the success of pipeline projects.
“The future of the pipeline industry is very closely linked to the future of the gas industry, and the increase in both domestic gas use and LNG exports has a proportional increase in the number of pipelines that have to be designed, built and operated in Australia.”?
Mr Cox said the passage earlier this month of legislation in the Lower House of Parliament to introduce a carbon tax provided a strong signal that Australia will be changing its reliance on coal and oil for energy.
“Australia is one of the top 20 polluting countries in the world and produces more carbon pollution per person than any other developed country in the world,”? he said.
“In Australia, around 80 per cent of our electricity is generated by burning coal. CO2 emissions from electricity generation account for 36 per cent of Australia’s total emissions. If we are able to replace say 20 per cent of coal generation with gas by 2020, this would equate to around 3.6 per cent reduction in Australia’s total emissions which is significant given our total reduction target is 5 per cent by 2020.
“A further 16 per cent of Australia’s carbon emissions come from the transport sector. Clean-burning CNG or LNG engines can reduce CO2 emissions by around 25 per cent compared with vehicles fuelled by conventional diesel and petrol. If we were to replace or convert say half of our vehicles over to gas, this would equate to a further 2 per cent reduction in our total emissions.
“Together, these two measures would equate to around 5.5 per cent reduction in our emissions. Unfortunately we have already increased our emissions since 2000 by 5.5 per cent, so in reality, this will just take us back to 2000 levels and other energy efficiency measures will be also be required.”?
Mr Cox said it was clear that renewables alone would not be able to achieve these targets by 2020.
“Therefore Australia needs to embrace a significant increase in the use of gas. Australia has the gas. Recoverable reserves in Australia continue to increase and could last us up to 250 years depending on how much we continue to find and certify and how much we export,”? he said.
“It is well and good to establish that increasing our use of gas will play a major role in reducing our carbon pollution, but carbon pollution impacts our planet, not just Australia.
“If we consider just the current four major CSG-to-LNG projects in Queensland and assume that the LNG will displace subcritical coal-fired power stations in Asia, then a global saving equivalent to 20 per cent of Australia’s annual emissions could be recognised.
“It is predicted that Australia’s LNG exports will increase by 400 per cent by 2035, making our impact on world emissions even more significant.”?
Mr Cox said that although it seems obvious that gas is the predominant solution to reducing carbon pollution in Australia, it sometimes appears to not be as high on the Federal Government’s agenda as alternatives such as renewables.
Federal Minister for Resources and Energy Martin Ferguson also adressed delegates at the event, and again highlighted the gas industry’s importance to the pipeline sector, stating that 25,000 km of Australia’s total 33,000 km of high-pressure transmission pipelines carry natural gas.