“The current high oil price is enough to encourage exploration,” he said.

Fitzgibbon said he did not have a figure the oil price had to slide to before he was able to reconsider oil exploration incentives. “We would approach that on a case-by-case basis,”

Mineral explorers however look as though they have won endorsement for flow through incentive share schemes.

Fitzgibbon said Labor’s proposed Energy Fuels Transition Fund would provide capital grants to low emission projects including those which allow Australia’s coal to be burned more cleanly and efficiently, and those which allow gas reserves to be used as cleaner transport fuels and bring forward the development of Australia’s enormous gas resources.

“The fund is designed to help clean up the environment, lower our dependence on imported oil, and maintain Australia’s international competitiveness as we move towards a carbon constrained world.”

Labor’s policy document will be released later this month. Along with initiatives to kick-start reform in Australia’s national electricity and gas markets, Fitzgibbon said the policy will commit Labor to: the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol; an increase in the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target and the introduction of a national carbon trading scheme.