At its foot, that is. With a 12-bore shotgun.

I’ve written before about Australia’s muddle-headed approach to developing its oil and gas reserves which has contributed to project costs spiralling out of control. Faced with crippling skills shortages the Australian government, bowing to pressure from powerful trades unions who are revelling in the highest wages in the global industry, refuses to relax immigration laws. As was recently revealed:

Australia and Norway led the world in salaries paid to oil and gas workers in 2012, while skills shortages ranked among employers top concerns for the future, according to a new survey. … Australian oil and gas companies paid their employees an average of $163,600 a year in 2012, highest in the world. Norway ranked in second place worldwide on $152,600. “Both countries have limited skilled labour pools and significant workloads,” the Hays report said. “The result is very high pay rates.”

Australia will likely end up paying a heavy price such short-term thinking, as two recent stories suggest.

The first:

ExxonMobil has confirmed that a giant floating liquefied natural gas vessel will be used to develop the deep-water Scarborough gas field off Western Australia. … The vessel will measure 495 metres in length and 75 metres in width, and have an LNG processing capacity of between 6 million and 7 million tonnes per annum — almost double the production capability of the FLNG vessel that Shell is building for the Prelude project in Australia.

The second: