The US-Israel strikes on Iran risk a repeat of the 2022 energy shock that forced power bills up by more than 40%, sent Australian businesses to the wall and forced governments to spend billions on power bill subsidies.<\/p>\n
The stark warning from experts follow news that Qatar, the third-largest liquefied natural gas exporter, had stopped production after Iranian drones on Monday attacked its sprawling Ras Laffan complex.<\/p>\n
The decision sent global wholesale gas prices soaring<\/a> by 50% in Europe and approaching 40% in Asia, reminiscent of the global energy chaos unleashed by Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine four years ago.<\/p>\n The US-Israeli missile strikes have already choked off shipping<\/a> through the strait of Hormuz, through which around a fifth of the world\u2019s seaborne oil and gas passes.<\/p>\n Kevin Morrison, an LNG and gas analyst at the Institute for Energy, Economics and Financial Analysis, said \u201cgas [on global markets] has had a much more dramatic increase<\/a> than the price of oil\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat the market is saying is they are fearing that the impact is going to be much greater for gas than for oil,\u201d Morrison said.<\/p>\n Australian wholesale gas prices have tripled over the past decade, coinciding with the start of major LNG export terminals in Queensland which tied domestic prices<\/a> to the more expensive and volatile international market.<\/p>\n Following Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, national household gas and electricity prices<\/a> jumped by 27% and 43%, respectively, in the year to March 2023, while gas prices for manufacturers surged 46%.<\/p>\n So far, there is no evidence that the Middle Eastern conflict has begun to feed through into the price of Australian LNG and domestic gas prices. Morrison, however, said there were similarities between what was happening now and four years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a big global gas supplier being knocked out, so the threat is there. We were heading into a period where gas prices were supposed to be coming down, but the characteristics are now there for a prolonged spike in prices,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n