Mining billionaire Gina Rinehart has hit out at the Albanese government’s renewable energy strategy saying fossil fuels are Australia’s ‘rational’ option to keep the lights on as she sealed a huge gas deal.

Mrs Rinehart’s company Hancock Prospecting announced on Thursday it was buying the Lockyer/North Erregulla Conventional Gas Project located in Western Australia’s mid-west Perth Basin as part of $1.1billion deal with previous owner MinRes.

The Lockyer project greatly expands Hancock’s footprint in the Perth Basin, following the company buying half of the adjacent West Erregulla gas field in 2023, giving it rights over potentially vast untapped ‘high quality’ oil and gas reserves. 

Mrs Rinehart told Daily Mail Australia on Thursday projects such as this were critical for Australia’s future because ‘so-called renewable energy’ can only make electricity between 10-25 per cent of the time for solar and up to one-third of the time for wind.

‘Gas can produce electricity much more reliably, even when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing,’ Mrs Rinehart, who is Hancock Executive Chairman, said.

‘Each rational observer recognises the need for more gas supply.’ 

She labelled renewables as ‘so-called’ because she stated they were ‘actually more minerals intensive than fossil fuels, and those minerals must be constantly found and developed, they do not ;renew’ themselves each year’. 

She said the ‘old but true laws of supply and demand cannot be changed’ with  Australia hungry for ever more gas as it grows in its share of electricity generation.

Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart has close a mammoth $1billion deal to drill oil and gas saying they were the only ‘rational’ power source to keep the lights on

‘Without additional supply, prices will rise, harming consumers and businesses who need gas as a reliable source of energy and baseload electricity generation,’ Mrs Rinehart said.

Ms Rinehart, who is Australia’s richest person with a fortunes estimated to be north of $40billion, said the federal government is driving investors away from natural resources projects, including gas.

‘Reducing unnecessarily complex and duplicative tape and excess regulations can unlock investment,’ she said.

However, Ms Rinehart did commend the WA Cook government for making ‘some efforts’ to ‘reduce tape and duplication’ plus encouraging investment by allowing onshore gas to be sold as higher price exports. 

Hancock prospect has bought the Lockyer/North Erregulla Conventional Gas Project in WA’s Perth Basin

The deal makes Hancock Prospecting one of the largest oil and gas rights acreage holders in onshore WA

With the state’s Collie coal power station closing 2030 Mr Rinehart said ‘gas generation will become more critical to keep the lights on in WA’. 

Hancock said aimed to bring the Lockyer project into production more speedily to bring gas to market as soon as possible. 

Mr Rinehart’s company will also enter into new joint partnerships with MinRes, founded and managed by fellow billionaire Chris Ellison. 

As part of the deal Hancock will also buy half 50 per cent of the remaining petroleum acreage that MinRes holds in the Perth Basin and the Carnarvon Basin, as well as half of MinRes’s ‘Explorer’ drill rig. 

This makes Hancock one of the largest oil and gas acreage holders in onshore WA. 

‘Hancock welcomes the opportunity to work alongside Chris Ellison and MinRes in our newly formed exploration joint ventures in the Perth and Carnarvon Basins, where we hope to one day discover the next Lockyer together’ Hancock CEO Garry Korte said.

Instead of renewables, Ms Rinehart previously said Australia should follow in the footsteps of her ‘pro-energy security friend’ who says ‘drill baby, drill’, a mantra used by Mr Trump who is running as the Republican nominee to regain the office he lost in 2020. 

‘We have so much natural gas in Australia, and if we are deciding not to use our vast coal deposits, let’s at least make use of our gas resources,’ Mrs Rinehart said. 

‘Natural gas is needed as a feedstock for manufacturing, and processing, aside from its uses to generate electricity for homes, offices, hospitals, shopping centres, hotels, restaurants, traffic lights, schools, sporting and entertainment centres. 

While Mrs Rinehart said that although Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s plan to install more nuclear power involved a ‘proven’ energy source it was ‘more than a decade away’ or even two decades because of ‘government red tape and approvals’ 

 ‘Those who don’t want to use gas, let them choose not to use, but let those who want reliable energy, have it.’ 

‘Let’s develop our massive natural gas resources and bring on as much supply as we need,’ Mrs Rinehart said.