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Bishop in whistlestop Paris visit

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop at the WGC in Paris yesterday.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop last night kicked off the countdown until Australia's biggest industry conference in 18 years - the LNG18 event - hits Perth in April, proclaiming the country's global leadership in the gas liquefaction game.

During a whistlestop 12-hour trip to Paris - "it's taken me 24 hours to get here and now it's going to take me 24 hours to get home again" - for meetings with a global coalition battling the Islamic State movement, Ms Bishop made a detour to address a 100-strong thronge of oil and gas executives at what was a quasi-marketing launch of LNG18.

Be visionary, Chevron boss urges

The executives, led by Woodside Petroleum managing director Peter Coleman, Shell Australia chair Andrew Smith and Origin Energy chief executive Grant King, were in Paris for the triennal World Gas Conference, which ranks alongside the LNG series as the global gas industry's showcase event.

Mr King, who is chairman of the LNG18 organising committee and was also involved in the LNG12 event in Perth in 1998, said the April conference would be the culmination of an application to host that was submitted to the International Gas Union in 2009, and would coincide with Australia entering "a golden era in LNG".

"When World Gas finishes on Friday, you can turn your minds to how you are going to get to Perth in April, it will be a great event and a great conference," Mr King quipped.

"I look forward to seeing you all, plus 20 of your friends (each), in Perth next year."

The two-hour cocktail function, co-organised by Austrade, was also attended by senior State and Federal government officials such as Australia's ambassador to France Stephen Brady and our new ambassador to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Brian Pontifex, in his second day in the Paris-based job.

The LNG18 launch preached to the converted but again highlighted how Australia, and WA in particular, has emerged as a global leader in the field of gas.

By next April Chevron expects to have at least the first of three LNG trains at its $US54 billion Gorgon project up and running while hopes are building that the Woodside-led Browse floating LNG venture will be heavily into front-end engineering and design work as a precursor to a positive final investment decision by the end of next year.

Organisers expect to attract 5000 delegates, trade visitors and exhibitors from 60 countries.

Chevron chief executive John Watson, Royal Dutch Shell boss Ben van Beurden, ConocoPhillips chairman Ryan Lance, BP head Bob Dudley and Inpex president Toshiaki Kitamura are confirmed headline speakers.

The reporter is attending WGC as a guest of the organisers of LNG18 Perth 2016.