Energy policy

Upstream petroleum companies’ investment decisions help provide Australians with a reliable, competitively priced energy source under world’s best practice environmental and safety management regimes.

To effectively serve the national interest, energy policy must respect commercial interests. Appropriate energy policy settings give companies a high degree of certainty about the context in which they make investment decisions - this facilitates market competition and secures energy supplies.

Energy policy needs to ensure rigorous environmental and safety management regimes, but it must also recognise commercial concerns and deal with strategic issues such as the:

• the projected decline in Australia's self-sufficiency of crude oil and condensate supply
• the need to ensure that gas plays a greater role in the energy mix
• fiscal and greenhose policy issues affecting the competitiveness of Australia's current and potential gas exports.