The Australian: Onshore gas to dominate meet

Problems in NSW with access to coal-seam gas, the potential for huge volumes of untested shale gas from central and Western Australia, and the repercussions of the nation's biggest company, BHP Billiton, spending $20 billion on shale gas in the US, are issues that will loom much larger this year.

A major focus for the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association lobby group that runs the three-day conference, will be the growing costs of doing business in Australia -- a topic hammered by Rio Tinto in the past fortnight.

The rising costs of developing projects in Australia, where $170bn worth of LNG export plants are under construction, will be a topic from the start of the conference, with the release tomorrow of a Deloitte report on maximising growth in the sector. MORE