With an export value of $42.2 billion, the Australian energy resources sector has been put under a microscope in a recently launched 10-year Sector Competitiveness Plan (SCP), which has a focus on growth and sustainability.
Developed by NERA (National Energy Resources Australia), the sector’s future roadmap identifies opportunities to increase global competitiveness and the identification of emerging markets for new businesses, thus helping to secure future Australian opportunities.
NERA chief executive officer Miranda Taylor said the Federal Government has an industry strategy that is addressing how the Australian economy can diversify after the resources boom.
“The Federal and State governments recognise that, for decades, Australia has had a strong economy based on the resources sector, but the world is changing with increasing global competition, and for various reasons the productivity and competitiveness of the Australian economy is in steady decline,” Ms Taylor said.
“The economy needs to diversify and adapt to the explosive change in technology, something the entire world is dealing with.”
The SCP focuses on three energy industries: coal, oil and gas, and uranium and is a culmination of a year’s study of international literature along with consultations with industry, universities, research organisations, governments and small to medium enterprises (SMEs).
Outlining the need for the sector to find productivity improvements and ensure it is able to compete internationally, the SCP highlights the need for industry to diversify and adapt by examining how the sector’s product value chain can leverage new technologies, capabilities and innovations to both enhance the sector and build a stronger and more diverse technology export capability.
Ms Taylor said adopting innovations from various automation markets will be key to this process.
“Innovation is all about finding new ways of doing things. Its about how we can adapt quickly and adopt advanced manufacturing technology, automation and the whole digital market as we’ve seen in other sectors,” she said.
Ms Taylor said the key areas the Australian energy resources sector needed to focus on were fostering efficiency in assets to manage costs effectively; achieve a deeper level of collaboration and engagement between all members of the sector and foster the growth of a strong and diverse economy around the sector’s value chain.
“The SCP highlights the need for the Australian energy resources sector to find new business models for the way we engage the different players in the ecosystem,” she said.
To read more about the 10-year SCP, which was launched at the 2017 Australian Oil and Gas Conference, download a copy.
Image: Supplied by NERA.