OpenTube

"Drill, baby, drill": Why Australia is on the cusp of a major gas boom

Livewire Markets

7,337 views

Australia’s energy grid is approaching a critical tipping point. Speaking at Livewire Live, Eley Griffiths Group's Executive Chairman Ben Griffiths explains why soaring electricity demand driven by AI data centres, rapid coal retirements, and lagging renewables will force a domestic gas renaissance.

With power consumption set to surge 50% by 2035, gas is the only scalable baseload fuel left to secure the grid and lower energy costs. Unlocking new supply is critical, making exploration hot spots in Australia prime opportunities for investors.

Livewire Live 2026 Event Info: https://www.livewiremarkets.com/livew...

Follow us:
Newsletter: https://www.livewiremarkets.com/subsc...
Linkedin: LinkedIn: livewire-markets
Instagram: Instagram: livewire.markets
X: https://x.com/livewiremarkets
Google: https://news.google.com/publications/...

🎧 Listen to our podcasts 🎧

📊 The rules of Investing
Spotify 🎙️: https://open.spotify.com/show/4yjyRDX...
Apple Podcasts 🍏: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast...

📈 Buy Hold Sell
Spotify 🎙️: https://open.spotify.com/show/1RVgsnq...
Apple Podcasts 🍏: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast...

General Advice Warning
Livewire gives readers access to information and educational content provided by financial services professionals and companies (”Livewire Contributors”). Livewire does not operate under an Australian financial services licence and relies on the exemption available under section 911A(2)(eb) of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) in respect of any advice given. Any advice on this site is general in nature and does not take into consideration your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making a decision please consider these and any relevant Product Disclosure Statement. Livewire has commercial relationships with some Livewire Contributors.

12 Comments

@noble0033 8 hours ago

Australia need nuclear energy it makes common sense as aus has one of the highest reserves of uranium.

@David-dl3vj 5 hours ago

"Australia" will NOT benefit from ANY gas boom? We'll be lucky to get 2c in the dollar and have to beg some overseas multi national to keep some off our own gas to "keep the lights on" like we do now AND they'll make sure we pay top dollar for it to or they ship it out.

@GCALcontent 7 hours ago

Agree with Ben. If the current gov's status quo remains and the Nuclear (ban-can) is kicked further down the road, it can only be gas to keep the lights on if coal generation in this country is not extended well into the future. A well established gas-lead company heavily entrenched in this space (that Ben did not mention in his presentation) is Amplitude Energy (ASX:AEL) with extensive gas tenements in the right areas, strong management and balance sheet to match.

@alvanrigby6361 5 hours ago

The solution for Australia should be coal, especially for Victoria.

@danielstapler4315 6 hours ago

How is possible for data centre demand for electricity to go from 3% to 13% since EVs will crash the grid?

@drarunselvakumar5009 8 hours ago

The biggest problem in the gas industry is Gas Turbine choke point. All the 3 Turbine makers are unable to deliver Turbine for 6-8 years if ordered today. The Single Crystal Superalloy blade for turbine is not available for casting. Only 2 companies in world make them (Howmet and PCC) they don’t have Rhenium (Re) to cast enough Turbine blades. rhenium must be extracted from molybdenum which is a byproduct of copper refining.

@drarunselvakumar5009 8 hours ago (edited)

How will you generate power for new plats/Datacenters when you have to wait 6-7 years for Gas Turbine? There are no Single-crystal (SX) turbine blades for turbines.

@noble0033 8 hours ago

Wait for data centres demand will increase

@Michael-jc4io 13 hours ago

Pity he had to copy Trumps slogan thought as Australia has a higher IQ than the states we could’ve come up with something better. Not only that when the last bloke said that all they did was go and steal someone’s else’s 😂

@markbrzezinski8889 3 hours ago (edited)

We just sold the rights to fracking gas in the northern territory. This was a corrupt government decision. But we did get nothing for it because it promised a few jobs. Meaning no money and no royalties and they sold it to the public by claiming it would create a few jobs.
I think this Australian accent guy (I do not care to remember his name) is pushing fracking for the US company who has the rights to those NT. fields.
Not against fracking but we should be doing it safely ourselves.
Ooooo I was right. he is pushing fracking in the Northern territory. I wrote this before the end.
Around 90% of the Northern Territory's (NT) water supply comes from underground groundwater stored in aquifers.
Fracking is the process of injecting high-pressure water, sand, and """"chemicals"""" 1,500 to 4,000 meters underground to crack impermeable rock and release trapped natural gas.
Great and we get data centers for that!!!! and we will destroy the cattle industry.
They could build data centers in the middle east would make more sense but they don't own that gas nor would they be allowed to own the data centers either.

@danmosby7980 9 hours ago (edited)

Total energy use has dropped across australia by more than 5% since peak 2019 according to AFR in spite of economy growing. Amazon and Apple have abandoned the AI warehouse PONZI scheme as Anthropic and Oracle go bankrupt delaying the IPO because they fear release of finances. Anthropic has cheap competitors and no customers, debt default in Private investment sees AI fail.. This guy is a bull shitter shill for the gas lobby.
Power will be supplied by the triple of Solar and batteries even across the USA. USA will replace Diesel with electric trucks accelerating now with iran war..
Petrol and Gas consumption declines while economy grows in June quarter alone Australia installed 102,000 rooftop Solar and 111,000 home Batteries.
NONE of the gas companies pay correct australia tax royalties all social tax bludgers ripping off the australian communities allowed to happen by corrupt labour and liberal gov..