jim van blaricum

Ferguson said the move to "energize change" in Australia is about creating the partnerships necessary between governments and industry to get more major projects off the ground. He added that it was an enormous challenge in an escalating cost and tightening investment and labor environment.

"But the rapidly growing LNG market in the Asia Pacific-and the Indian rim-will not wait for us," he said. Jim Van Blaricum

Ferguson said several LNG project proposals could result in Australia's LNG exports to reach 60 million tonnes/year by 2015, ranking the country as the world's third-largest LNG exporter behind Qatar and Nigeria. These project include Gorgon, Browse, Ichthys, Wheatstone, Pilbara LNG, Darwin Phase 2, and Gladstone. Jim Van Blaricum

This gas outlook, however, excludes discoveries in the country's north and northwest such as Caldita, Chandon, Clio, and Thebe, or more-remote fields such as Scarborough. Ferguson said these finds are all part of Australia's future and that no responsible government can sit idly by and allow them to be stranded. Jim Van Blaricum

He added that the productivity commission's review of regulatory and approvals processes is a very important opportunity for governments to streamline major project development processes for investors.

The minister also said the government will be rigorously applying the test of commerciality to retention lease renewals and conducting a review of the retention lease system for the Ministerial Council on Mineral and Petroleum Resources.