WA gas users launch Mia Davies at Woodside to pry more supply from Pluto

The Domgas Alliance of major WA gas users has chosen high-profile ex-National Party politician Mia Davies to relaunch their campaign for local supply not to suffer from gas exports.

The Australian Energy Market Operator has forecast that gas supply in WA could be tight in 2028 and increasingly not meet demand from 2030.

That is bad news for the viability of gas-dependent manufacturers that set up in WA when the fuel was plentiful and cheap, and even before a shortage had hit, have already suffered enormous price increases this decade.

The Alliance's members - including alumina refiner Alcoa, Wesfarmers' fertiliser and chemicals arm WESCEF, Norwegian fertiliser giant Yara, Cockburn Cement, Coogee Chemicals and titanium producer Tronox - account for 60 per cent of WA's gas demand.

Davies, now the Alliance's official spokesperson, said the group's three priorities were to immediately begin working with the State Government to get Woodside to supply more gas from its Pluto project, for the Federal Government to strengthen the "use it or lose it" provisions of offshore retention leases in Commonwealth waters and to increase market transparency.

Davies, working for lobbyists GRA Partners, wants urgent action from the WA Government.

"When you think about the businesses that are involved in investment decisions and in energy policy, 2028 is literally tomorrow, 2030 is next week," she said on Thursday.

Davies is clear that her immediate focus is Woodside's Pluto project.

"I would think they'd be wanting to uphold the agreement in the spirit in which it was made," she said.

WA's domestic gas policy is that gas exporters must reserve gas equivalent to 15 per cent of exports for local use, have the infrastructure to supply the gas to WA, and market it in good faith.

Nineteen years ago, Alan Carpenter gave Woodside the go-ahead to build the Pluto gas plant in the Pilbara in exchange for a generous domestic gas obligation that did not apply to the first five years of gas exports, but also appears legally unenforceable.

The lack of supply from Pluto is stark when compared to Chevron's Wheatstone project. In the five years to 2024, Wheatstone, with less than double the export capacity of Pluto, has supplied ten times more gas to WA.

A year ago, the WA Labor Government responded to a comprehensive Parliamentary Inquiry into WA's domestic gas policy, adopting 11 of its 30 recommendations.

One of those was for the government to "work with Woodside to develop a plan to acquit the Pluto domestic gas obligations, including the modernisation of arrangements."

Davies said that Woodside might say they are meeting its obligation, but she is not sure everyday Austrlaians would agree.

"I would think they'd be wanting to uphold the agreement in the spirit in which it was made," she said.

Extra gas from Pluto may be able to help the market in the short term but other problem will emerge next decade.

Chevon's Gorgon's project does not have an obligation to reserve for local use the equivalent to 15 per cent of exports. Instead, it is reserving a fixed amount that will be sold in about a decades time, meaning the facility not supplying a quarter of WA' sgas could then export all its gas.

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Davies said the Alliance would discuss Gorgon with the goverment.

"We need to make sure that whilst there are agreements in place .. we need to go back to first principles, which is that those agreements were struck with the clear principle of making sure that there was domestic gas delivered into the West Australian market," she said.