Australia’s oil and gas industry continues to help drive the national economy amid record export earnings, a new report says.
Resources and Energy Quarterly shows LNG exports were revised upwards to a record $92 billion over the past financial year, as part of a $460 billion return for the overall resources sector.
The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association said the industry employed thousands of workers and provided $16b in government revenue during the last financial year.
“The industry’s $400 billion investment in LNG projects over the past 15 years underpins the nation’s domestic energy security and delivers substantial economic benefits to Australia,” chief executive Samantha McCulloch said on Monday.
This included $45 billion of industry expenditure on local goods and services.
The record LNG performance for 2022/23 was up slightly on recent forecasts and up from $70b the previous year.
The report said LNG earnings were forecast to fall by $24b to $68b in 2023/24, as LNG prices ease from the record high levels reached in 2022.
A further fall of $8b to $60b is forecast in 2024/25.
Oil exports totalled $13b in 2022/23 and are expected to climb to $14b in the current year before dropping to $12b the following year.
“Even with a slowing of export returns in the cycle across the resources sector, gas is still a reliable and significant economic driver in the nation’s fortunes at a time when the economy is facing headwinds and uncertainty,” Ms McCulloch said.
The federal government’s Resources and Energy Quarterly report for June forecasts the value, volume and price of Australia’s major resources and energy commodity exports.
“The continued fallout from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and strength of the US dollar has helped deliver an estimated record $460 billion in earnings for Australian exports of resource and energy commodities in 2022/23,” the report said.
Export earnings are forecast to fall to $390b in 2023/24 and then to $344b in 2024/25, as energy prices go back toward levels traded prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Aaron Bunch
(Australian Associated Press)
