Major gas project hit by super tax
Woodside's North-West Shelf project will be covered by the resources super profits tax. (AFP: File ...
The Federal Government has confirmed that Australia's biggest oil and gas project will be covered by the resources super profits tax. The project, in Western Australia's Pilbara region, is owned by Woodside and several joint venture partners who are now in talks with the Government to try to find out how hard the tax will hit them.
It has been more than three weeks since the super profits tax was unveiled but it is only now become clear that it would also apply to the $27 billion North-West Shelf project.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has told Parliament the company is consulting with Treasury.
"They are engaged in consultations with the treasury panel on detail, on implementation and on transition," he said.
The North-West Shelf produces more than 40 per cent of Australia's oil and gas and has been WA's largest supplier of domestic gas for more than 25 years.
It has been exempt from the petroleum resource rent tax which has applied to off shore projects since the mid 1980s.
Opposition resources spokesman Ian Macfarlane has condemned the move.
"What the Rudd Government is doing is destroying a project that the Hawke and Keating government gave a special exemption to, to make sure it got off the ground," he said.
WA Premier Colin Barnett says he has not been told the new tax would extend to the North-West Shelf.
He says foreign trade representatives are worried.
"They see this as political or sovereign risk and that is probably the most damaging aspect of this whole debate," he said.
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