Latest / Best of Business / Shane Jones: Resources Minister on the reports warning the $200m gas fund may not be enough for the sector

Transcript

Shane Jones: Resources Minister on the reports warning the $200m gas fund may not be enough for the sector · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks. There'd be
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio Afternoon.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: It's been confirmed that Marui gas Field will close. The
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: confirmation came in official documents which have been released and
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: they have redacted exactly when the closure will happen though.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Resources Minister Shane Jones.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: Is with us. Hi Shane, Hi, good afternoon.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Can you tell us when the closure is happening?
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: No, sadly that information exclusively lies with the the esset owner.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Is it December next year?
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: Anyway? As I said, can you.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Rule out it's December next year?
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: Now, what I'd say is that we're suffering a decline
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: and the known reserves from those historically large sites, and
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: they're working through the process. It's up to them to
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: identify when it will actually cease.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Okay, when I mean it looks here's the thing, Shane,
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: this is the rumor that's going around everybody. He's talking
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: about being December next year. If that's the case, when
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: are they going to announce it, Like, how far before
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: it actually happens? Because is this something we're going to
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: be dealing with an election time for you?
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: Well, whichever way we cut it, it's bigger of a
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: problem because we've grown up with gas I don't know,
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: three to five dollars a unit, and it's declining and
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: for the last six to odd years there's been no
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: incentive to continue. It has an impact, no doubt on Methinix,
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: which is an employer. So I don't want to trivialize
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: this the scale of this issue in terms of its
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: impact on Tonamuckey, which is why I'm a great supporter
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: for accelerating the Einstein's mining off the coast of Tutmucky.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: So if mar We closes, which is going to happen,
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: does that necessarily mean that methan x closes as well?
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: Well? Methods the Canadian known firm, they for each winter
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: tend to bulow some of their assets, ie they sell
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: the gas into the market when there's a shortage for
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: electricity purposes. And that's led to a god awful squabble
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: between the industrial users, the Crown users, and the electricity users.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: And the electricity because you and I will pay over
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: the odds to keep the lights on, they tend to
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: dominate the buying power. So we need more gas.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Okay, you haven't answered my question though, if mar closes,
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: does that necessarily mean method ex closes.
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, once again, it's really up to the CEO
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: and the managers.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: And where else did they.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: Get the gas from those shoe they'd have to close?
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll tell you what. The next person you should
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: have on the show is the CEO of Methodics and
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: let them explain how they're going to run their business.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: How much gas do we lose from Marwi closing.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: Well, they've been trying to squeeze as much gas as
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: possible out and what they've found is that as they
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: get to a point where the gas is infused with
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: either too much water hydrogen, it no longer becomes commercial.
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: And let's not dance on the head of a pin.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: I don't want to ruin your show. The reality is
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: we are struggling to maintain supplies of gas and it's
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: forcing up the cost of industry fuel costs and energy.
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: But I wouldn't want to look. I wouldn't want to
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: say anything on the show that unnecessarily speaks everyone. It's
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: up to these two commercial people to identify it. And
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: obviously our officials are giving us various options in relation
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: to electricity. I mean, as we decrease our utilization of gas,
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: we're going to have to use more coal.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well I think that the truth, Shane. Thank you
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: very much, appreciate it. Shane Jones, Resources Minister.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: For more from News Talks B listen live on air
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: go with our podcasts on iart Radio