WA Premier Colin Barnett loves pipelines! We know this because he told us.

“I love pipelines,” he said. “I don’t know anything about the engineering or the design process, but I love pipelines and their contribution to Western Australia.

“As a successful regional economy, we must concentrate on what we do best. We have only 2.3 million people, but we are in the same time zone as 4 billion people,” Mr Barnett said.

The Premier said that Western Australia would work well as a resource-based economy. He noted that the people-movement, similar to that seen in the ‘Joh era’ of Queensland, was now happening in Western Australia as a response to the state’s active economy.

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The Premier said that Western Australia provides 66 per cent of Australia’s exports to China. It supplies 35 per cent of Australia’s exports to Japan and 35 per cent of the nation’s exports to India.

“Western Australia is the world’s leading mining economy, with $70 billion of mineral and petroleum production. We expect a $170 billion investment in projects over the next 5 years...and we have 160 Tcf of gas.”

According to Mr Barnett, Western Australia would be second only to Qatar by 2020 in LNG exports.

He said the further development of Western Australia’s natural gas resources would also see greater demand for pipelines to move the gas.

The Premier’s presentation was informative and entertaining, and was delivered on a critical day for the Western Australian Government and the state’s energy industry. At his engagement before attending the APIA lunch, Mr Barnett had announced the Government’s decision to begin the process to take over land at James Price Point in the Kimberley so that Woodside Petroleum can construct a gas-processing hub.

The Premier didn’t miss a beat and APIA’s members and guests left the lunch well informed about the future of Western Australia and its pipeline industry.