Making changes to the Australian federal government's Petroleum Resources Rent Tax (PRRT) could further pressure investment in the sector, especially given volatile commodity prices, according to Australian independent Woodside Energy.
The PRRT is a profit-based tax on offshore upstream gas projects that allows for deductions on the cost of exploration and development. Volatile commodity prices mean fiscal stability and predictability is critical to investment in the sector, said Woodside chief executive officer Meg O'Neill to the Australian National Press Club on 19 April. O'Neill's warning comes ahead of the 9 May budget, when any changes to the PRRT will be revealed.
"The fact there's temptation to change a tax regime, I certainly understand that, I understand the budgetary pressures the government is grappling with," she said. "The risk that we run though is to try to do something in the near-term that's a bit of a band-aid but it's going to cause long-term harm, it's going to cause investment to be under additional pressure. Our message to the government is hold the course, stay with the framework we have, it's delivering very well for Australians."
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said on 17 April that he had received a report from his department on the PRRT, but has not yet finalised his decision. "We've said for some time now that we want to make sure that the PRRT arrangements are up to scratch," Chalmers added. "Clearly my predecessors had concerns that they were not and I have some concerns that they are not."
Growing pressure to raise taxes
Australia's Labor government has been under pressure from tax commentators and lobbyists that say not enough tax has been raised from record-high profits reported by gas giants for the past financial year, leading it to restart a review of PRRT arrangements that the previous coalition government had started.
Australia's LNG export revenue is forecast to jump to A$91bn ($61.3bn) in 2022-23, a figure that has increased pressure on the government to raise taxes as Australian consumers face higher energy prices. Revenue from the PRRT is predicted to peak at A$2.6bn in 2023, before declining to around A$2bn from 2024.
Any changes to the PRRT are likely to build upon a 2018 Australian Senate inquiry, which recommended reforms to tax deduction rules for gas companies. The findings were consistent with the 2017 Callaghan report by Australia's federal treasury department, which found gas transfer pricing arrangements for calculating the PRRT required updating for integrated LNG projects, the price point at which the resource is taxed being a critical element of determining the PRRT to be paid. After a consultation with the industry on the changes, the previous government paused negotiations during the pandemic in 2020.
Financial services group Macquarie said future investment in offshore LNG was limited, leading the government to rely on increasing taxation for existing projects. It predicts there will be alterations to the gas pricing transfer element of the PRRT, and said LNG projects involving Australian independents Santos and Woodside were the most exposed to any changes.

