MELBOURNE - Australia’s New South Wales opened its first new areas for gas exploration in a decade on April 29, slashing application fees from A$50 000, or $35 815, to A$1 000 in a bid to revive a domestic industry.

Two frontier locations in the state's west will be opened for exploration, although the state government did not elaborate on the specific number of sites. A preliminary study paper published in 2021 suggested four.

“What we need to do, carefully and methodically, is make sure we are responsibly pulling every lever to support a stable and robust energy grid for decades to come,” Australia Natural Resources Minister Courtney Houssos said in a statement.

“Current global events make this work more important than ever.”

Houssos said gas remained important for heating and manufacturing in addition to electricity, although recent data from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) found that gas for power generation had fallen to a two-decade low.

Environmental and farming groups criticised the exploration plans.

“The government must explain how it will prevent a flood of speculators and ‘$1000 cowboys’ arriving on farms with inadequate resourcing, poor behaviour and little regard for biosecurity or water risk,” NSW Farmers President Xavier Martin said, adding that the group was not against development. Business associations as well as industry lobby group Australian Energy Producers welcomed it.

New South Wales follows other states trying to boost energy security as AEMO predicts gas supply shortfalls on the east coast by the end of the decade.

Queensland and Victoria have offered gas and oil exploration acreage for companies to bid on.

The former is home to a coal seam gas industry that feeds three separate liquefied natural gas consortia operated by companies including Shell, ConocoPhillips and Santos. The latter has little to no State-based exploration or production after years of moratoria and a permanent ban on fracking but recently offered five new permits in offshore state waters.

New South Wales pulled most coal seam gas permits from junior exploration companies such as Metgasco and Comet Ridge last decade and the one project successive governments have backed, Santos’ CSG Narrabri project, remains stalled.

Separately on Wednesday, steelmaker BlueScope CEO Tania Archibald told the Melbourne Mining Club that companies such as hers needed more gas and lower prices to remain competitive and reduce emissions through transitioning from coal. New South Wales-based BlueScope is one of the State's largest gas users.