Essay by Eric Worrall
Economic ruin approaching? $60 billion of Japanese investment in Australia is in peril, along with 10s of billions of dollars exports, because of Australia’s green energy policies.
Japan’s Inpex says Australia risks unintended consequences as it ‘quietly quits’ LNG
By energy reporter Daniel Mercer
Posted Thu 30 Mar 2023 at 6:03pm
The head of Japan’s biggest oil and gas producer has warned that Australia risks undermining global security through a decision to “quietly quit” the international gas trade.
Key points:
- A gas company executive says Japan has been rattled by government interventions in Australia’s gas industry
- He says Russia, China and Iran will likely fill any void if Australia exits LNG production
- A Japanese ambassador says his country depends on Australia for resources
In an extraordinary speech delivered at a federal parliamentary event on Thursday, Inpex chief executive Takayuki Ueda suggested Japan had been rattled by government interventions in Australia’s gas industry.
…
From the speech by Ueda-San, head of INPEX, Japan’s largest energy producer.
… Australia is competing for global investment and the changes we are seeing to Australian policy settings will choke investment and strangle the expansion of LNG projects in this country.
The consequence of these well-intentioned policies will be that the increasing energy demand in our region will be met by coal and not by natural gas.
The result will be much higher global greenhouse gas emissions and will make net zero by 2050 an impossible task.
On the geopolitical front, Australia’s “quiet quitting” of the LNG business has potentially very sinister consequences. The question of who will replace Australian supply into the market is front and center.
Alarmingly, the “inconvenient truth” is most likely that Russia, China and Iran fill the void. …
Read more: https://www.au.emb-japan.go.jp/files/100483933.pdf (backup copy here)
The ambassador also made a speech, but the Ambassador’s speech was tame compared to the speech by the Inpex boss.
This energy policy madness is a recipe for driving inflation and mortgage interest rates into double digits.
The only reason inflation and mortgage interest rates haven’t soared into double digits is because Australia’s high value energy and mineral exports are propping up the value of the Australian dollar. High value exports make imports cheaper, which puts downwards pressure on inflation.
