An LNG import terminal in Victoria could be an important lifeline for households and gas-reliant manufacturing firms, but environmentalists and community groups have concerns about it NickToscano1
In the calm waters of Corio Bay in Victoria, a proposal to build a specialised shipping terminal might hold the key to avoiding a repeat of this year’s east-coast energy crisis, or a worse one still to come.
“Avoiding this is really critical for the state – so the quickest and most efficient way of dealing with that is to build an import facility, which is what we are proposing to do at Geelong.”While Australia produces much gas, massive amounts are locked in to contracts to be sold to overseas buyers, or are in faraway parts of the country where it is either too expensive or physically impossible to supply demand centres in the south that need the fuel the most.
La Nauze says Victoria’s road-map lacks necessary “urgency” necessary because it stops short of banning new gas hook-ups as other jurisdictions in the world have done, but he points to a report by the state’s independent infrastructure advisor finding gas use could be halved by 2030 with the “right policies”.
As Viva’s project goes through public hearings, it is facing objections from Geelong residents, conservationists, tourism groups and schools. Wyatt is urging critics to view it through the lens of striking a balance between energy security and energy transition, while also avoiding the need to drill more gas fields or build new pipelines to bring gas from north to south.
For Wyatt, a community campaign against the LNG terminal is the latest challenge he must confront after a turbulent two years for the ASX-listed fuels supplier, which runs Australia’s Shell and Liberty petrol stations. In 2020-21, lockdowns confined people to their homes, wiped out fuel usage and pushed its Geelong refinery to nearly breaking point. BP and Exxon’s local refineries shut their doors.
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