Mr POOLE - 1999-08-17
The minister and previous ministers realise that the oil and gas industry presents numerous opportunities for major project developments in the Territory. Could the minister inform the House of the anticipated benefits resulting from a recent Stock Exchange announcement that the Plenty River Corporation is to investigate building an ammonia/urea plant in Darwin?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, as a previous resource development minister the member is well aware of the importance to Territorians, in terms of job creation and in terms of cheaper electricity, of progressing the bringing of gas onshore to the Northern Territory.
As the member pointed out, there was a letter from the Plenty River Corporation to the Australian Stock Exchange on 27 July. In that letter, the directors of Plenty River, who had previously been pursuing a site on the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia to establish an ammonia/urea project, advised that:
following an approach from Phillips Petroleum Co, Plenty River and Chambal [which is an Indian manufacturer of fertiliser, I think one of the six largest in the world], have been studying Darwin as a possible location for their proposed ammonia/urea project based on sourcing natural gas from the Timor Sea.
It’s a long way from making such an announcement to achieving the objective of situating a plant like that in Darwin. But there is certainly work going on to try to ensure that that possibility can or may be reached at the end of the process. Such a plant would involve 1000 construction jobs and over 120 operational jobs. It is mooted to start up in 2003. The capital expenditure involved would be $US500m. It certainly would be very, very advantageous to the Territory.
It’s early days, but the Territory government is working very, very hard to do all it can to ensure that there are no impediments to establishing this that we can overcome or prevent. We are talking with Phillips and with the Plenty River people to ensure that everything the Territory can do will be done to get this project here in the Territory. If it comes it brings gas onshore, and gas onshore brings cheaper energy. It is the only way we’re going to be able to cut our electricity prices. We on the CLP side of this House are working extremely hard to bring that benefit to Territorians, and we won’t rest until we get there.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, as a previous resource development minister the member is well aware of the importance to Territorians, in terms of job creation and in terms of cheaper electricity, of progressing the bringing of gas onshore to the Northern Territory.
As the member pointed out, there was a letter from the Plenty River Corporation to the Australian Stock Exchange on 27 July. In that letter, the directors of Plenty River, who had previously been pursuing a site on the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia to establish an ammonia/urea project, advised that:
following an approach from Phillips Petroleum Co, Plenty River and Chambal [which is an Indian manufacturer of fertiliser, I think one of the six largest in the world], have been studying Darwin as a possible location for their proposed ammonia/urea project based on sourcing natural gas from the Timor Sea.
It’s a long way from making such an announcement to achieving the objective of situating a plant like that in Darwin. But there is certainly work going on to try to ensure that that possibility can or may be reached at the end of the process. Such a plant would involve 1000 construction jobs and over 120 operational jobs. It is mooted to start up in 2003. The capital expenditure involved would be $US500m. It certainly would be very, very advantageous to the Territory.
It’s early days, but the Territory government is working very, very hard to do all it can to ensure that there are no impediments to establishing this that we can overcome or prevent. We are talking with Phillips and with the Plenty River people to ensure that everything the Territory can do will be done to get this project here in the Territory. If it comes it brings gas onshore, and gas onshore brings cheaper energy. It is the only way we’re going to be able to cut our electricity prices. We on the CLP side of this House are working extremely hard to bring that benefit to Territorians, and we won’t rest until we get there.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016