In the April 2025 instalment of this quarterly series, Asia Natural Gas and Energy Association CEO Paul Everingham reflects on the state of play in the US and Australia, the outlook for ANGEA for the remainder of the year and growing momentum for cross-border CCS.
It’s a little over a month since you returned from CERAWeek in Houston – what was that experience like this year and what did you take away from it?
The biggest thing I took away from CERAWeek this year was a strong sense of buoyancy from the US energy sector – and the gas and LNG industries in particular. The 2024 pause on LNG export approvals caused a great deal of uncertainty, which was definitely felt at the previous CERAWeek. There was more optimism this year about both the immediate and long-term futures for the US LNG industry. Participants and stakeholders are excited about what US LNG can do for the world.
Last time we caught up back in January, the changeover of Administration in the US was still underway. There have been some very positive developments for the LNG industry since then.
The appointment of Secretary Chris Wright as Secretary for Energy has been very well-received. Secretary Wright is someone with an extremely strong knowledge of and experience in the energy industry and the importance of US LNG to ally countries in Asia. ANGEA is looking forward to working with Secretary Wright and his team over the next four years.
The resumption of processing of export approval permits has been a significant positive for our industry. We’ve seen a range of significant facilities approved for exports to non-FTA companies, including the Calcasieu Pass 2 project that is being built by ANGEA member company Venture Global. As outlined in our recent submission to the U.S. Department of Energy’s LNG Export Study, the resumption of export approvals has been welcomed by all countries in Asia as it is essential to meeting our region’s future energy needs.
It’s also pleasing to see updated regulations that make it simpler for LNG export permit holders to extend authorisation if their projects have not started exporting within seven years of the permit being issued. The Golden Pass LNG facility, in which our member ExxonMobil is a partner, is one project that has benefited from a more flexible approach to permit extensions.
Moving onto another key supplier country for Asia, how do you view the situation for the Australian LNG industry?
At the time of answering this, a Federal election is less than two weeks away – so there’s a degree to which the situation in Australia is still in flux. However, whatever the make-up of the eventual government, ANGEA’s message will remain simple: Australia has the gas resources to meet both its own pressing energy needs and continue to be a reliable and trusted supplier to Asia. It shouldn’t be a binary proposition, particularly given the current energy landscape in Asia and growing demand for LNG.
Established gas users such as Japan are reinforcing the role of LNG in their long-term energy planning and emerging nations such as the Philippines and Vietnam are increasingly looking to LNG to help reduce their current dependence on coal. There’s an enormous opportunity for Australian LNG to play a major role in supporting both energy security and affordable decarbonisation in Asia.
But meeting demand from Asia over the next few decades will require continued development of Australian gas projects. That won’t happen without an energy policy environment that is both stable and conducive to ongoing investment. There’s a lot to be gained for Australia – not just in supporting trade partners and the energy transition in Asia, but through the ongoing job creation and economic benefits that come with having a strong gas industry that is deeply connected to international markets.
How is the rest of 2025 looking for ANGEA?
Very busy but very exciting. We’ve mapped out quite an ambitious and impactful schedule for the remainder of the year, through event participation and engagement with key stakeholders in Asia Pacific and beyond. Over the next six months, the ANGEA team will be undertaking on-the-ground engagement activities in Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam, the US and Australia. And we’ll be speaking at a wide range of events, including the Global CCS Institute’s APAC Forum in Malaysia, APAC Energy Assembly in Singapore, the FT Energy Transition Summit in Indonesia and the Carbon Capture APAC Summit in Australia.
We’re also continuing to advance our work on cross-border CCS in Asia Pacific and finalising a very interesting and impactful project on the carbon intensity of LNG being used in Asia. We’ll have quite a bit to say about the carbon intensity project over the next few months as it will highlight a critical role for LNG in Asia’s future energy systems and how supplier countries can make tangibles contribution to decarbonisation across the region.
The cross-border CCS space is really exciting – what should people look out for there?
Over the past two years we’ve seen the appetite for and understanding of cross-border CCS gain considerable momentum in Asia Pacific. That’s been evident in the growing number of studies and MOUs that are based on CO2 transactions between emitter and storage nations. The natural next step will be formal, bilateral cross-border CCS agreements between countries and that’s why we believe ANGEA’s work in this area is so relevant. The framework produced through our study last year is a first-of-its-kind resource that countries can use as a reference point when they sit down to negotiate those agreements.
We’ve always said that the technical aspects for CCS were well established but the policy and regulatory environment needed to catch up. That’s how things are playing out. For instance, ANGEA’s member company Santos very successfully launched its Moomba CCS project in Australia in October 2024, with more than 340,000 tonnes of domestic emissions stored by the year’s end. But domestic emissions are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the impact CCS projects in Australia could have. A much broader benefit will come from being able to receive and sequester CO2 from trading partners who have the ability to capture emissions but not the geological capacity to store them. This is also true for other nations in Asia Pacific that aspire to become significant CCS storage hubs, such as Indonesia and Malaysia.
Over the next 20 years, we believe cross-border CCS will emerge as an industry that not only delivers emissions reduction across the region but provides new economic opportunities and supports hundreds of thousands of jobs. I’m confident we’ll see very real progress towards this in the coming 12 months, and that continued development of supportive policy and regulatory environments will be critical.
Paul Everingham was CEO of the Asia Natural Gas and Energy Association (ANGEA) from September 2022 to June 2026. ANGEA works with governments, industries and communities in Asia, providing affordable solutions that promote energy security, economic growth and decarbonisation.
