LNG 18 conference organising committee chair Grant King is positive about the industry's future, despite the low oil price environment and a predicted short-term oversupply, saying international demand growth for electricity will underpin a need for gas.
Mr King, who is also managing director of Origin Energy, said despite the potential for an oversupply, most Australian domestic production was contracted, with producers taking on oil price risk but not volume risk.
There was strong international demand growth for electricity, he added, which would underpin natural gas demand.
That could include developing countries such as India and much of Africa, where industrialisation and a lack of reliable power supply meant the regions were ripe as markets.
Gas in particular was reliable, filling a role after the Fukishima disaster in Japan and now to generate electricity in Tasmania, Mr King said.
Gas could have an increasing roles the developed world decarbonised, he added.
It is timely for the triennial conference to head to Western Australia, with the state becoming one of the world's largest LNG producing regions in its own right as projects such as Gorgon come online.
The event will open tomorrow, with Woodside Petroleum chief executive Peter Coleman, Chevron chief executive John Watson, and Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden joined by Premier Colin Barnett to launch the conference.
Other high-profile speakers will include China National Offshore Oil Corporation president Hui Li, Petronas chief executive Datuk Wan Zulkiflee bin Wan Ariffin, and ConocoPhillips chief executive Ryan Lance.
About 1,800 exhibitors will attend, with close to 2,000 delegates.
The range of topics to be covered include innovation, collaboration and the emerging spot market, which would enable a decoupling of LNG prices from oil.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will address attendees at a welcome event tonight, and will then hold a cabinet meeting in Perth tomorrow morning.
He was in the Pilbara today touring the $54 billion Chevron Gorgon facility, which he gave environmental approval in 2007.
