One of the architects of Australia's tax system on natural resources, Craig Emerson, has backed calls for a parliamentary inquiry into why the boom in liquefied natural gas exports is failing to deliver any meaningful contribution to the public purse.

Mr Emerson – who designed the petroleum resource rent tax with economist Ross Garnaut in the Hawke government – believes particular scrutiny should be given to extra concessions won by the oil and gas sector since the tax was first imposed on offshore projects in the mid-1980s.

Fairfax Media has revealed over recent months that just 5 per cent of 150 oil and gas ventures are paying any PRRT, despite Australia being poised to eclipse Qatar as the world's single biggest exporter of LNG by 2020.

The industry has built up a mountainous $187 billion in exploration and development tax credits, which continue to rise sharply and will be used to insulate the multinational petroleum companies from having to pay any resource rent tax for years to come.