Domestic gas supplied to Western Australia

Woodside is a significant supplier of domestic gas in WA

>4,000 petajoules
of domestic gas supplied to Western Australia since 1984

QUESTION

Does Woodside provide its fair share of domestic gas?

FACT

The Western Australian Government has a policy in place to support local gas supply, known as the Domestic Gas (Domgas) Policy. Woodside continues to meet its obligations and act in the spirit of that policy.

Since 1984, Woodside has supplied more than 4,000 petajoules of domestic gas to Western Australia.¹ If used for power generation, this quantity of natural gas could power every household in Western Australia for more than 80 years.²

In its 42 years of operation in Western Australia, Woodside has supplied to the state's market the equivalent of 37% of the company’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) export volumes. Before the Domgas Policy was formalised and until 2017, Woodside supplied domestic gas equivalent to approximately 50% of LNG export volumes from the North West Shelf Project.

Woodside has been supplying reliable, competitively priced domestic gas to Western Australia since 1984 and will continue to do so.

The Domgas Policy requires exporters of LNG from Western Australia to withhold a certain quantity for domestic supply. The policy was formalised in October 2006 and has three pillars³:

Reserving domestic gas equivalent to 15% of LNG production from each LNG export project.
Developing and obtaining access to the necessary infrastructure (including a domestic gas plant, associated facilities and offshore pipelines) to meet domestic gas commitments.
Showing diligence and good faith in marketing gas to existing and prospective consumers.

The policy states it will be applied flexibly by the State Government, over the life of a project and not year-on-year.

¹^{In Woodside’s own capacity and not as operator of a joint venture.}

²^{Based on 2016 and 2021 Australian Bureau of Statistics data which indicated that Western Australia was expected to have had more than 1.15 million households in 2023}^–^{24. Western Australian residential electricity consumption was 23.5 petajoules 2023–24 (Australian Energy Statistics, Australian Energy Update 2025). Electricity equivalence assumes generation in a modern combined‑cycle gas turbine operating at average net efficiency. The estimate is illustrative only and does not represent actual electricity supply.}

^{3 www.wa.gov.au/government/wa-domestic-gas-policy.}

Additional Facts

QUESTION

Does Woodside export LNG at the expense of supplying Western Australian homes and businesses?

FACT

The local gas market in the state is finely balanced between supply and demand in the near to medium term.

LNG export projects have underpinned domestic gas supply in Western Australia. This has in turn supported the growth of local gas-intensive industries and the overall Western Australian economy. Without the ability to access international markets through LNG exports, it would not have been economically viable to develop Western Australia’s large, offshore gas resources as not all resources support a domestic-gas-only project.

Geographically isolated from other Australian gas markets, Western Australia has a comparatively small number of buyers and sellers with demand driven by large industrial users (84%) rather than retail customers (7%).

QUESTION

Does the continued export of gas risk creating shortages in Western Australia and price rises for consumers?

FACT

Between 1984 and 2023, Woodside supplied more than 3,900 petajoules of gas to the Western Australian market.* This is equivalent to 37% of the volume of gas that Woodside has exported as LNG.

The Western Australian domestic gas market is finely balanced between supply and demand in the near to medium term.

Prices for domestic gas are determined by the market. Unsold gas, which is subject to the reserve, is made available to support Western Australia’s economic and industrial development.

The fact that gas prices in the state have been trending down since mid-2023 is evidence there is not currently a supply issue.⁴

A growing shortfall, however, is expected to open up from the end of this decade. Woodside’s Scarborough Energy Project will contribute up to 225 terajoules per day of domestic capacity into Western Australia, with first gas expected in 2026.

_{* In Woodside’s own capacity and not as operator of a joint venture.}

QUESTION

Does the approval of the NWS Project Extension pose a major threat to Western Australia’s domestic gas market?

FACT

As noted above, the Western Australian Domestic Gas (Domgas) Policy requires exporters of LNG from Western Australia to withhold from their total export volume a minimum of 15% for domestic supply.

The NWS extension is intended to support the development of additional gas fields in Western Australia, allowing an increase in supply of gas. Availability of more domestic gas can result in lower gas prices for consumers and further support the local Western Australian economy.

Related facts

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Domestic gas supplied to Western Australia

QUESTION

FACT

Additional Facts

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The Scarborough Energy Project

Managing environmental impacts

Taxes paid and benefits to the Australian economy