MEDIA RELEASE

 

Regional Development Australia (RDA) – Illawarra welcomed the announcement today by a new Australian-led international consortium, Australian Industrial Energy (AIE), that Port Kembla has been selected as the site for NSW first Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Import Terminal.

RDA Illawarra CEO, Debra Murphy, said ‘the Port Kembla Gas Terminal will provide certainty of LNG supply to the high energy-intensive manufacturing sector in the Illawarra region and beyond by 2020.  This terminal could alleviate the pressure of high energy costs on the Illawarra’s steel and manufacturing sector and support their long term sustainable business viability.

This private sector investment is important to the Illawarra as it is a major capital investment of around $200-$300m and imperative to the state of NSW as it has the capacity to meet over 70% of NSW total gas needs.

The Illawarra region not only needs new capital investment and the ongoing 40-50 new jobs created from this facility, we also need to continue to support our existing steel and manufacturing sectors to remain profitable.

In addition, the region will benefit through improved utilisation of the Port of Port Kembla, seeing the development of a terminal at a highly under-utilised berth.

In summary, the Illawarra regional economy will benefit in many ways: through alleviating cost pressures on high energy-intensive industries; through direct capital investment and indirect flow-on to the economy; through improved port of Port Kembla berth utilisation; as well as the potential for additional development through a potential future power plant.”