Mr BALCH - 2000-11-28
You returned last week from a trip to Japan. Can you tell members of this House who you met with and their level of interest in investing in the Northern Territory?
Mr Stirling: You would have met with a few more than he met with when he went overseas, I hope.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, some people would be like the ones the member for Nhulunbuy met on his fact-finding survey when he included New Zealand with the grand final in Melbourne.
On the Japanese trip, in Osaka …
Mr Stirling: Wrong date. I did not go to the grand final.
Mr BURKE: The Sydney grand final, was it?
Mr Stirling: The preliminary grand final.
Mr BURKE: Thank you for clarifying the situation.
In Osaka, during a very productive trip, we firstly met Osaka Gas. Osaka Gas services more than 6 million domestic and commercial users in Japan. It has a 10% equity in both Sunrise and Evans Shoals gasfields. In Tokyo, we met with some of the largest corporations in the world dealing in energy - Mitsui and Co Ltd; the major Japanese petroleum company Impex; Mitsubishi Gas and Chemical Co; Tokyo Electric Power Co; Tokyo Gas Co; Nippon Oil Exploration; Japan Petroleum and Exploration; Marubeni, who have participated in pre-feasibility studies at the McArthur River mine and also have interests in Ord River stage 2; and Sumitomo, which is one of Japan’s largest integrated trading companies and was one of the first Timor Sea explorers. These are major international corporations who are either investing in the Timor Sea, are conducting exploration in the Timor Sea, are potential gas customers, or are potential equity investors in the Timor Sea.
Out of that trip, I say to Territorians and members of this Assembly that I am absolutely confident that we are on the cusp of bringing Timor Sea gas to Australia, a project that will bring billions of cubic feet of gas onshore near Darwin, to supply the gas-hungry markets both nationally and internationally, plus bring a new era of energy costs to the Northern Territory.
The significance of this particular project to the Northern Territory should not be misunderstood. As a result of Timor Sea gas coming onshore and the associated construction, employment is expected to peak at 8200 jobs in 2005. This is much, much bigger than the railway - 4550 jobs direct and 3650 indirect. Potential employment is likely to increase further with Timor Sea gas available at competitive prices for other new investments and mineral processing and gas-based manufacturing.
This represents the best opportunity yet for Darwin to truly become the gateway to Asia and to be an attractive strategic place for companies to locate their business. Not only will we have good transportation and a good, modern, state-of-the-art port, we will also have low energy costs.
I have worked very hard with the various joint-venture partners to impress upon them the importance of bringing this project together as one province and to work together in terms of how the customers are served, particularly those customers who are looking for gas as soon as possible. As part of that strategy, I have brokered a meeting between the Prime Minister, the chief executive officer of Phillips Worldwide, and Mr John Akehurst, the CEO of Woodside. I know that John Akehurst represents both Woodside and Shell in this particular subject.
We will meet the Prime Minister tomorrow. That will be an important meeting in terms of further dialogue in getting these joint-venture partners to see the various fields as one project, and to scope up the project to bring gas onshore with one pipeline to get the incentives from both the Commonwealth and the Northern Territory to realise this great new infrastructure project for the Northern Territory.
Mr Stirling: You would have met with a few more than he met with when he went overseas, I hope.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, some people would be like the ones the member for Nhulunbuy met on his fact-finding survey when he included New Zealand with the grand final in Melbourne.
On the Japanese trip, in Osaka …
Mr Stirling: Wrong date. I did not go to the grand final.
Mr BURKE: The Sydney grand final, was it?
Mr Stirling: The preliminary grand final.
Mr BURKE: Thank you for clarifying the situation.
In Osaka, during a very productive trip, we firstly met Osaka Gas. Osaka Gas services more than 6 million domestic and commercial users in Japan. It has a 10% equity in both Sunrise and Evans Shoals gasfields. In Tokyo, we met with some of the largest corporations in the world dealing in energy - Mitsui and Co Ltd; the major Japanese petroleum company Impex; Mitsubishi Gas and Chemical Co; Tokyo Electric Power Co; Tokyo Gas Co; Nippon Oil Exploration; Japan Petroleum and Exploration; Marubeni, who have participated in pre-feasibility studies at the McArthur River mine and also have interests in Ord River stage 2; and Sumitomo, which is one of Japan’s largest integrated trading companies and was one of the first Timor Sea explorers. These are major international corporations who are either investing in the Timor Sea, are conducting exploration in the Timor Sea, are potential gas customers, or are potential equity investors in the Timor Sea.
Out of that trip, I say to Territorians and members of this Assembly that I am absolutely confident that we are on the cusp of bringing Timor Sea gas to Australia, a project that will bring billions of cubic feet of gas onshore near Darwin, to supply the gas-hungry markets both nationally and internationally, plus bring a new era of energy costs to the Northern Territory.
The significance of this particular project to the Northern Territory should not be misunderstood. As a result of Timor Sea gas coming onshore and the associated construction, employment is expected to peak at 8200 jobs in 2005. This is much, much bigger than the railway - 4550 jobs direct and 3650 indirect. Potential employment is likely to increase further with Timor Sea gas available at competitive prices for other new investments and mineral processing and gas-based manufacturing.
This represents the best opportunity yet for Darwin to truly become the gateway to Asia and to be an attractive strategic place for companies to locate their business. Not only will we have good transportation and a good, modern, state-of-the-art port, we will also have low energy costs.
I have worked very hard with the various joint-venture partners to impress upon them the importance of bringing this project together as one province and to work together in terms of how the customers are served, particularly those customers who are looking for gas as soon as possible. As part of that strategy, I have brokered a meeting between the Prime Minister, the chief executive officer of Phillips Worldwide, and Mr John Akehurst, the CEO of Woodside. I know that John Akehurst represents both Woodside and Shell in this particular subject.
We will meet the Prime Minister tomorrow. That will be an important meeting in terms of further dialogue in getting these joint-venture partners to see the various fields as one project, and to scope up the project to bring gas onshore with one pipeline to get the incentives from both the Commonwealth and the Northern Territory to realise this great new infrastructure project for the Northern Territory.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016