Is Santos holding capital to ransom because of gas reservation policy? | The Business | ABC NEWS

For Santos shareholders at the company's investor event in Sydney, there was an elephant in the room. How would the government's 20 per cent gas reservation policy impact the oil and gas giant, that's Gladstone LNG project is widely acknowledged to be in the crosshairs of the new policy? Santos chief executive Kevin Gallagher declined an on-camera interview with The Business. MST Marquee head of energy research Saul Kavonic joined the show to explain how Santos, and the Australian gas market could be impacted by the policy. He says the government is trying to make Santos' GLNG "actually do its fair share for the domestic market, because to date it's largely got off scot-free" from having to contribute any gas domestically and left that burden to the neighbouring two other LNG projects, run by Origin and Shell. "If the gas reservation scheme works as the government says it will, and that's a big if by the way, it could put downward pressure on domestic prices for a few years, which would have flow on benefits, particularly to our manufacturing sector and electricity prices," he says. But Mr Kavonic says the policy could spell bad news for the Australian gas industry if the government doesn't get the details right. "It could actually end up seeing supply drop, particularly from Australian domestic producers, that can't survive under too low a price, and ultimately that ends up putting our gas industry, both domestic and export, into decline," he says. #ABCBusiness Subscribe: http://ab.co/1svxLVE Read more here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-26/asx-markets-business-live-news-oil-price/106721278 Note: In most cases, our captions are auto-generated. #ABCNEWS #ABCNEWSAustralia