This past week, Fran was in Geoje, South Korea to inspect the safety and progress of Shell’s floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) platform: Prelude. At 488 meters long and 74 meters wide, it is the largest floating structure ever constructed and the first of its kind in the world. It will be anchored in the Browse Basin, about 200km from the WA coastline. Operations are expected to begin in 2017.
As Deputy Chair of the Economics and Industry Standing, Fran played an integral role in the inquiry into the economic implications of FLNG operations in WA. The inquiry, which tabled its final report in May this year, found that while development of natural gas technology is vital to WA’s economic development, the benefits of Prelude in terms of local jobs and revenue will not be significant as would be hoped for. Current onshore processing of LNG results in the creation of local jobs and revenue, but the offshore nature of Prelude will not. An independent study into potential State revenue received from onshore processing of the resources in the Torosa gas field concluded that WA would receive around $1,735 million in royalties, taxes and GST. This figure is a good estimate of what will missed out on due to offshore processing.
The committee’s report can be found here: http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/parliament/commit.nsf/all/C0C5DDDDBF91A4F248257B6C001AA791?opendocument&tab=tab3