The LNG industry portrays itself as essential to WA’s economy, a sentiment echoed by the WA Government. However, LNG industry contributes just 1% of the WA state budget and two thirds of Western Australia’s gas is effectively given away by the Western Australian and Australian Governments with almost no royalties or tax being paid. The gas industry creates few jobs, with less than 1% of WA workers engaged in oil and gas extraction.

Update: Table 3 of this report was updated on 19 January to include data supplied by Woodside on its Burrup subsidiary companies. This change did not affect any figures or calculations elsewhere in the report or media release.