Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
much natural gas should be exported without raising the natural gas prices
and reducing supplies in the US.
As well as supplies of shale gas from America using LNG export terminals,
Australia also plans to expand in the export market for LNG. It now accounts
for 9% of the globally traded LNG and production is set to ramp up
substantially (see Figure 9).
Investment in capacity to export LNG has been the key driver of Australia's
recent boom, with 7 of the world's 12 largest LNG plants being built in
Australia. Investment in Australia accounts for around two thirds of all the
current global investment in the LNG industry.
40
Exports are set to rise
sharply and government forecasts suggest a rise of over 300% between 2015
and 2020.
Based on Australian government projections, Australia will become the
second-largest exporter of LNG in the world by 2016. If all the major
investments projects under consideration were to go ahead, Australia stands
to become the world's largest exporter of LNG by 2020, overtaking Qatar.
This is without the potential shale gas and other unconventional gas sources
being heavily exploited. These developments are in their early stages but
could become a significant source of the country's gas production, especially
given that the LNG export capacity is already being built.
This expansion in the Australian LNG market will be in direct competition
with the expansion of the US shale gas export proposals and will be com-
peting for the same markets worldwide. It will be interesting to see how the
expansion in exports of LNG affects the development of shale gas in other
areas and the impact that this has on world gas prices. Should world prices
reflect prices in the US, then it is likely that that there will be a slowing down
of future exploration in countries where regulation and operating conditions
are more challenging.
If, due to increases in the world gas demand (not only from developing
countries but also as a result of a change in national policy relating to power
generation in countries such as Japan and Germany), there is little impact on
world gas prices, then shale gas extraction in other countries will continue to
be developed. Japan and Germany are expanding their gas-fired power
station programmes as a result of trying to reduce their nuclear generation
capacity in response to the Fukushima nuclear accident that occurred in
2011.
6 Regulation
Regulation in the UK is controlled by a variety of national and local
government departments with a variety of different responsibilities.
In the UK, the environmental considerations are controlled by the
following organisations: the Environmental Agency (EA) in England, the
Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) and the Environmental
Agencies of Wales and Northern Ireland. These agencies are responsible for
the protection of the environment and for the exploration and extraction of
