Increased exports of Australian LNG to Singapore are in prospect, after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met his Singaporean counterpart Lawrence Wong in Friday talks to shore up Australia\u2019s oil supply chain.<\/p>\n
During a joint news conference Prime Minister Wong said Singapore would look to access more Australian LNG on a commercial basis \u201cand hopefully more long-term gas as well\u201d. <\/p>\n
Albanese said if Singapore required more LNG, over a period \u201cadditional fields are going to come online\u201d. <\/p>\n
Asked about the tax treatment for new exports, Albanese dodged answering the question directly. But he has previously indicated \u2013 in the face of pressure from the left and right of politics for a super profits tax on increased gas exports \u2013 that his priority is to maintain Australia\u2019s reputation as a reliable supplier. At the news conference he again stressed Australia\u2019s reliability.<\/p>\n
During a flying visit to Singapore focused on energy security, Albanese and Wong pledged to keep trade in energy products flowing between the two countries \u2013 LNG from Australia and refined products from Singapore. <\/p>\n
Wong said: \u201cEssential goods will continue to move between Australia and Singapore. That includes liquefied natural gas, or LNG, which Australia supplies to Singapore, as well as refined petroleum products like diesel which Singapore supplies to Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n
Singapore supplies more than a quarter of Australia\u2019s refined fuel imports, while Australia provides about one third of Singapore\u2019s LNG. <\/p>\n
When asked whether Australia would be given priority if Singapore had to restrict exports, Wong said: \u201cWe do not plan to restrict. We didn\u2019t have to do so even in the darkest days of COVID. And we will not do so during this energy crisis. It\u2019s hypothetical. It won\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two countries are negotiating a legally binding Protocol to the Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement on Economic Resilience and Essential Supplies, and are arranging to step up coordination on energy issues. <\/p>\n
In a joint statement the leaders said: <\/p>\n
we recognised the importance of the role of our countries in each other\u2019s energy security \u2013 Singapore is one of Australia\u2019s top suppliers of refined petroleum products, and Australia is one of Singapore\u2019s top suppliers of liquefied natural gas.<\/p>\n
we stated our determination to make maximum efforts to meet each other\u2019s energy security needs in the context of the acute energy crisis currently affecting global markets.<\/p>\n
we reaffirmed our commitment to support the flow of essential goods including petroleum oils, such as diesel, and LNG and agreed to intensify cooperation to facilitate the timely movement of goods and essential supplies through enhanced coordination, efficient border and port processes, transparency, and early consultation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Increased exports of Australian LNG to Singapore are in prospect, after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met his Singaporean…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-384794","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}