Price still up in the air as gas producers sign supply deal

East coast gas exporters on Tuesday signed a formal agreement with the government to offer enough gas to meet to an expected shortfall for next year and 2019 “and any emerging additional shortfall”.

The agreement signed by east coast gas exporters on Tuesday is not specific on price. 

The agreement, to which Malcolm Turnbull was the government signatory, ties down arrangements reached in talks last week and follows estimates that the east cost market faces a shortfall of 54 petajoules (PJ) in 2018 and 48 PJ for 2019.

According to the estimates, there could be an extra shortfall of 53 PJ in 2018 and 54 PJ the following year.

The agreement is not specific on price, referring to “the good faith offering of gas to the domestic market on reasonable terms”.

It says that uncontracted gas won’t be offered to the international market unless equivalent amounts have first been offered to the local market “on competitive market terms”.

Read the piece by a Professorial Fellow at the University of Canberra, Michelle Grattan, on The Conversation - “Price still up in the air as gas producers sign supply deal.”