SYDNEY, Wednesday 18 March 2026 — Greenpeace Australia Pacific has slammed gas corporations and lobby groups including Australian Energy Producers (AEP) for exploiting the illegal war on Iran to price gouge, profiteer and push for new gas projects, while Australian households pay the price with soaring bills and rising ‘warflation’.
Greenpeace has challenged misleading claims by lobby group AEP that gas corporations will not reap windfall war profits from long term gas contracts — an assertion that selectively ignores the fact most Gas exports are on contracts that automatically see prices move with Asian and global benchmarks, not with their real costs.
Almost all long‑term gas export deals the ACCC examined last year are tied to international price indices instead of fixed prices, and in key Asian markets around two‑thirds or more of long-term LNG volumes are still oil‑linked, with most of the rest tied to gas benchmarks. In the East Coast domestic market nearly half (48%) of the gas volume contracted for 2027 is also ‘commodity‑linked’, meaning it will rise and fall with those same Asian benchmark prices that are now spiking because of the war on Iran, instead of staying at a stable agreed price.
AEP members not only include fossil fuel giants like Woodside, Shell, Santos, and Exxon-Mobil, but also major Australian organisations like UNSW, Curtin University, ANZ, PwC, EY, Deloitte and KPMG. Greenpeace Australia Pacific considers these corporations complicit in AEP’s lobbying.
Joe Rafalowicz, Head of Climate and Energy at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “It is disturbing to see the gas lobby exploit the illegal war on Iran to peddle its propaganda and to push for more gas, when the fastest path to lower household bills and energy security is to break free from fossil fuel chokehold as quickly as possible.
“The only “misleading and opportunistic” calls here are attempts by AEP to block recent proposals to tax gas war profits, which could provide much needed relief for Australian households bearing the brunt of warflation, and fund the rollout of clean, secure and stable wind and solar energy.
“Big Gas sees conflict as a business opportunity — cynically using the illegal war on Iran to push for gas extraction, when we already have more than enough gas to transition to renewable energy.
“Our reliance on fossil fuels leaves us overexposed to the whims of tyrants like Trump, gas corporations and lobbyists, seeking to profit while everyday people pay the price.
“The fastest path towards long term energy security and a safe climate is to unhook from volatile, expensive, polluting gas and accelerate the shift to homegrown wind and solar energy.”
-ENDS-
Images available for download via the Greenpeace Media Library
Media contact:
Lucy Keller on 0491 135 308 or lkeller@greenpeace.org
Leave a comment
