12 months of turmoil in Australia’s upstream

The last year has seen a series of significant changes to the Australia's upstream sector, affecting regulation, emissions and fiscal terms. The most significant policy changes are: 1) to gas market regulation to increase security of domgas supply, 2) to fiscal take via PRRT reforms and 3) greater emission reduction targets via enhanced Safeguard Mechanism. But have these measures reduced or increased uncertainty? Our view is that the gas market intervention provides neither buyers nor sellers with the clarity and security they want. However, we believe a separate issue - the crisis in environmental approvals - represents the greatest overall risk to investment.