This report finds that gas exports are rapidly depleting Australia’s gas reserves and undermining Australia’s energy security. It comes at a time when Australians are paying record gas prices and being told they face gas shortages. The report outlines how Australian gas is used, including gas exports. Each year the volume of gas used by Australian gas exporters is equal to around four and half years of domestic gas usage. Because gas companies tend to develop lower cost reserves first, it is the low-cost gas that is leaving Australia each year, leaving only more difficult to extract, and in turn more expensive, gas reserves for Australians to rely on in the future.

Key findings

• In the past five years, the Australian Government has allowed the export of gas volumes equivalent to 22 years of Australia’s total gas demand.
• The gas industry uses more gas just processing gas for export than Australians use for gas power plants, manufacturing or households.
• In 2023-24, 83% of all natural gas extracted in Australia was used by the LNG export industry.
• Gas exports have caused east coast wholesale gas prices to triple.
• Australians pay 4 to 7 times more for gas than other large gas producing nations including the USA, Russia, Quatar and Canada.
• The Prime Minster's claim that new gas projects are needed for firming renewables and the Resources Minister’s claims that gas exports support Japan’s energy security are untrue.