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The gas industry generated $121 billion for the economy last year, up 42 per cent on the previous COVID-19-impacted year, the head of the sector’s peak national body says.

Gas Energy Australia CEO Brett Heffernan said internal research showed the industry accounted for 5.25 per cent of Australia’s GDP.

“It is a huge supplier of local jobs, a major economic driver and a vital component in making industry tick,” he said.

Mr Heffernan said a report by ACIL Allen for Gas Energy Australia showed while gas production made up the bulk of the economic boost, there was also an increase in gas towards electricity generation.

He said the industry was working on reducing its carbon footprint, with a plan to replace conventional LPG with synthetic actual zero renewable LPG by 2045 expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 509,000 tonnes a year.

Gas should be treated as an integral part of the energy landscape and played a part where electricity could not, Mr Heffernan said.

“Whether for industrial heat over 800 degrees Celsius – which electricity cannot achieve – to process the things we all use like glass, bricks, ceramics and alumina, or as a feedstock ingredient in making plastics, fertilisers, pharmaceuticals, rubber, propellants, refrigeration, adhesives, cosmetics, to list just a few … gas cannot be replaced,” he said.

Kathryn Magann
(Australian Associated Press)