As Asia scrambles for gas, another Australian gas export plant is out of action, and the WA Government monitors the situation to ensure sufficient fuel for the state.
Australia's second-biggest oil and gas company has come under fire for its tax contributions, as tensions over domestic prices and export royalties heat up.
Australian taxpayers receive a tiny fraction of the nation's massive windfall from natural gas exports while watching their own bills creep higher, new research claims.
Oil and gas giant Santos has paid $33 million in corporate income tax in 10 years, representing 0.08 per cent of $41 billion in revenue from its Australian operations, according to a report by financial activist group Market Forces.
That amounts to less than one cent paid on every dollar of sales.
"Santos is fuelling catastrophic climate change and the huge rise in Australian household gas prices, all while sending the country's gas overseas for bigger profits," research head Kyle Robertson said on Wednesday.
But Santos rejected the claims.
"Santos has no intention of responding to misinformation from Market Forces, a climate campaign organisation affiliated with Friends of the Earth, that wants to stop investment in oil and gas at a time when the world needs more investment in these critical fuels," a Santos spokesman said in a statement.
The Market Forces report on Santos comes as pressure mounts on the federal government to reform how Australia taxes gas and oil exports, as commodity prices surge on the back of the Middle East conflict.
In the oil and gas giant's latest tax disclosure statement for 2024, Santos declared Australian accounting revenue of $US2.36 billion ($A3.35 billion).
It recorded $US19 million ($A27 million) in tax payable after deductions including exploration costs, petroleum resource rent tax, depreciation and other capital allowances.
The payable tax amounted to about 6.3 per cent of its $US303 million ($A430 million) pre-tax profit, or 0.8 per cent of its 2024 Australian revenue.
The document showed Santos paid more than $US1 billion ($A1.4 billion) to Australian and foreign governments in tax and royalties, although that included $US295 million in employee taxes, such as pay as you go (PAYG) income tax payments.
According to the disclosure, Santos paid the Australian government $US17 million ($A24 million), and paid Papua New Guinea $US420 million ($A595 million), despite producing significantly more gas in Australia.
The Labor government is backing a parliamentary inquiry into the tax regime, and the prime minister's department has reportedly ordered Treasury to model "new levy options" on the gas industry.
Independent ACT Senator David Pocock has been calling for an east coast gas reservation, by diverting uncontracted gas to the domestic market, along with a 25 per cent tax on gas export revenue.
"Gas companies and especially Santos cannot be trusted to do the right thing by Australian households and businesses," Mr Pocock told AAP.
The gas industry, along with the federal opposition, argues that new taxes would stifle investment.
Under a federal scheme to commence in 2027, exporters will reserve between 15 and 25 per cent of gas for domestic use.
As Asia scrambles for gas, another Australian gas export plant is out of action, and the WA Government monitors the situation to ensure sufficient fuel for the state.
The troubled $6 billion flagship will be out of action "for a number of weeks," just as Santos' customers are desperate for gas to replace supply from the Middle East.
The shutdown of the Yara Pilbara plant comes as a quarter of global trade in ammonia, used for urea fertiliser and mining explosives, is blocked by war.
Peter Milne
