Australia's Looming Natural Gas Surge

Rudd China Gloom Misses Australia's Looming Surge in Natural Gas - Bloomberg | Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's strategy of centering an election pitch on his ability to steer Australia through the end of a China-led minerals boom is overlooking the next big thing: natural gas. The Treasury two days ago forecast deeper budget deficits in the next three years as growth slows, unemployment rises and mining investment wanes, constraining Rudd and opposition leader Tony Abbott's election pledges. ...Ten gas projects across the nation -- three of which are operating and seven under construction -- will boost budget revenues by A$11 billion ($10 billion) a year from 2015 to 2025, according to estimates compiled by McKinsey & Co. Inc. The projects will add 2.6 percent to Australia's gross domestic product...Australia's LNG export earnings are projected to increase fivefold to A$61 billion through June 2018, according to the government's Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics. BG Group Plc's venture on the coast of Queensland state is due to begin in 2014, and Chevron Corp. (CVX)'s A$52 billion Gorgon project on Barrow Island off northwest Australia, the largest resources development in the nation's history, is scheduled to start delivering cargoes in early 2015.