Senior onshore gas industry figures in Adelaide for petroleum conference call for more openness THE petroleum industry needed to confront its critics with transparency and scientific rigour, senior industry figures said yesterday. Realisation of the benefits of the industry would create a "foundation of community confidence," Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association chief executive David Byers said. "This will be achieved through safe and responsible operating practices," he told an industry conference in Adelaide. It will require robust regulation, and early and open communication. Industry and government have been working to ensure fact-based information is available to the community to enable informed discussion and decision-making. That is an important means of countering some of the misinformation that has been spread by groups who are at times ideologically opposed to natural gas and ignore the extensive body of science and operational experience. The newly appointed chairman of an advisory board to APPEA, former federal Labor minister Martin Ferguson, said the industry was not shy of community consultation. "This industry absolutely accepts the need to talk to communities, to work with farmers and to have the best possible regulatory standards," Mr Ferguson said. Premier Jay Weatherill held up South Australia's permissive regulatory model as an example to be followed. This included last December's roadmap to develop unconventional gas, which brought industry, government, environmental and social-group representatives together. "Membership of the round table (on unconventional gas) has swelled to 350 and five working groups have been formed," the Premier said. They'll focus on commer-cialising unconventional gas in ways that meets both investors' and community expectations. We are determined to reach consensus . . ." that satisfies diverse interests." Mr Byers also said the industry would continue innovation to drive down costs and open up new opportunities. This would include projects for floating LNG. While the conference is focused on onshore developments, the offshore sector made a significant announcement, with Chevron Australia committing to sell 0.9 million tonnes of LNG a year for 20 years from Wheatstone to the Japanese utility, Tohoku. " (This) means that 85 per cent of Chevron's equity LNG from Wheatstone is now committed to customers in Asia on a long-term basis," Chevron Australia managing director Roy Krzywosinski said.