The timing of your Company’s pivot towards the Australian domestic gas market could
not have been more propitious. The reluctance of the major gas consuming States
towards onshore gas exploration, coupled with the steep decline in Bass Strait
production, foreshadows a deepening gas shortage in the Eastern Seaboard markets. A
little over a decade ago over 70% of gas produced for the domestic market was sourced
from Bass Strait with Queensland supplying less than 10% of the supply. Now
Queensland supplies over half of the Eastern Seaboard domestic market’s
requirements. This looming reality presaged a more accommodating Federal
Government gas policy.
Not only is there to be an unnecessary gas shortage but the realisation has dawned first
on the developed world and belatedly Australia just how difficultthe much-touted energy
transition will be both in the short and long term. Gas will be the lubricant to that
transition - a stark reality still being denied by the wishful thinkers.
Taking all of this into account, Elixir’s key focus of the last 15 months has been the
Grandis Project in Queensland’s Taroom Trough. Your Directors are extremely pleased
with the exploration results to date. Soon we will commence the final production test
of this remarkable well. Your board have become Daydream Believers
With a degree of history repeating itself like in the nineties the threat (or in my view the
challenge) of the introduction of PNG Gas heralded the start of a concerted CSG effort,
the challenge of the domestic gas shortfall has seen a concerted industry effort to
“crack the code” to the best production method for the deep tight gas resources of the
Taroom Trough. As in the early days of the CSG revolution, the industry’s participants
like Santos, Origin and Shell are co-operating in the efforts of nurturing the birth of this
new resource. Such co-operation is unheralded but clearly in the National Interest.
On behalf of the Board, I would like to express our appreciation ofshareholder’s support
and trust that this coming year’s efforts will amply reward you for your patience and
support.
