Will Western Australia be ‘cooking with gas’ in the 2030s?

May 27, 2026 — 10:54am

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Western Australia’s Premier Roger Cook warned last week the state might be forced to frack the Kimberley unless Woodside’s controversial Browse gas project goes ahead, stating there was a “Browse-sized hole in our energy supplies in the early 2030s”.

However, Cook has ignored a much more certain option to ensure gas supply: requiring liquefied natural gas exporters to meet their 15 per cent domestic reservation obligations on an annual basis.

WA’s 15 per cent reservation policy is often held up as an example for the eastern states to emulate, but the reality is it is not living up to expectations.

LNG exporters had supplied only 8 per cent of production by 2023, and contract gas prices have trended towards east coast levels in recent years.

The key issue is LNG producers have discretion over when they supply gas domestically, and financial incentives to delay this because LNG export prices are typically higher than domestic prices.

This is not merely a theoretical point – Woodside’s Pluto LNG has supplied just 3 per cent of its production domestically.

As noted by former WA Nationals leader Mia Davies (now spokeswoman for the DomGas alliance): “The problem is a system failing........

© WA Today