Current market challenges for the LNG sector will only serve to make the industry stronger, Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull told this year’s huge gas meet in Perth today.

Hotfoot from a day trip to Barrow Island and Karratha in Australia’s northwest where he had visited the country’s newest, although currently non-producing, project Gorgon LNG, Turnbull formally opened the LNG 18 meeting at an evening reception held by local Perth host Woodside Energy.

Acknowledging that the global LNG industry is facing challenges, Turnbull said: “This year’s conference theme ‘Redrawing the Global Map of Gas’ comes as we are witnessing huge shifts in the supply and demand for key resources, including LNG.”

Prices for our key commodities including LNG have fallen as new supply has come on stream, he said

The resources construction boom has peaked for the time being, Turnbull said, but the production phase will continue as long the world needs energy.

The PM said gas, which can produce 50% less emissions than a typical coal-fired power plant, has a pivotal role in delivering energy with lower carbon emissions to fill the gap to intermittent renewables.

“The LNG industry will survive this cyclical shock and grow stronger because of it,” he said, highlighting that the industry is adapting by reducing costs, pushing the frontiers of innovation and increasing market share.

Turnbull, who as a minister in 2007 granted approval to recently started Gorgon, said Australia’s LNG exports will treble by 2020 making it the country’s second most valuable export after iron ore.

By the turn of the decade Australia will also provide about 40% of both China and Japan's LNG imports, and 25% of Korea’s.

Woodside Energy chief executive and managing director Peter Coleman, who had travelled to northern Australia with the PM today, mused that the LNG industry used to be a bit of a club.

 “These days more people have joined the club and I’d say the house is rocking at the moment and it’s moving pretty fast,” Coleman said.

“It’s been a tough year for our industry,” he said, adding that the LNG sector has “been here before” and just needs to pick itself up and move on.

But he warned: “We simply can’t be clunky out-of-touch LNG developers.  We need to be agile and flexible and able to withstand the volatilities of the commodities business that we are in.”