A senator pushing for more tax on Australian gas exports was left gobsmacked after one of the biggest miners in Australia couldn't answer how much it profited in 2025.

Shell country chair Cecile Wake fronted a senate committee on Wednesday to comment on how increased taxes would affect gas companies.

While she could confidently say an extra 25 per cent royalty on Australian gas would be 'spectacularly ill advised', she was stumped by questions about Shell's taxes and said she would get back to them.

'So you can't tell me revenue, you can't actually tell me how much gas you're exporting from Australia?' Senator David Pocock asked.

Senator Sarah Hanson-Young then chimed in: ' What did you think we were going to be asking you today?'

Ms Wake answered: 'I thought you were going to be asking me about tax, Senator.'

Companies extracting and selling gas from Australia typically pay 40 per cent on the profit they make through Petroleum Resources Rent Tax (PRRT). 

But those profits can be offset by losses for capital expenditure and several other accounting factors.

Despite the industry being worth hundreds of billions, the government collected just $1.5billion in revenue from the PRRT in 2025. 

In comparison $2.7billion was made on the beer excise alone.

Ms Wake, alongside Shell's tax boss Coralie Trotter, said the multinational company paid $109million in PRRT in 2025 - but it didn't pay any in the decade previous.

Shell representatives were able to offer more insight into its 2024 figures, with Ms Trotter saying it paid $2.9billion in tax on $6.2billion in after-tax profits. She claimed the company had paid $12billion in taxes in the last decade.

Ms Wake said the profit would be much smaller than the revenue collected during that time as Shell invested US$60billion into developing gas projects.

'It is not unreasonable for us to be able to recover that before you start paying a profit-based tax,' she said.

However, the investment figure caught Senator Pocock's attention for another reason.

'Ms Wake, how come you can tell me how much you invested but not how much gas you sold?' he asked. 'You tell us about all the investment but you're very quiet on how much gas you're actually selling.'

Several crossbenchers, as well as Liberal industry spokesman Andrew Hastie, Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn and Labor backbencher Ed Husic, support raising taxes on gas exporters in the May budget.

The government has not announced plans to implement a tougher export tax regime, but has requested Treasury modelling on new levy options.

The shortcomings of the PRRT were well canvassed in the first batch of hearings.

Critics say the tax is poorly structured for modern LNG projects as it allows overly generous deductions for capital expenditure.

Calls have been made for the government to introduce an additional 25 per cent royalty on gas exports.

Supporters believe the additional funds would significantly improve Australia's budget, bringing it closer to the welfare benefits Norwegians reap from their country's gas reserves.

However, Ms Wake said the introduction of another tax could see the Australian gas market viewed as 'risky' by foreign investors.

'The magnitude of the changes that have been proposed here are not insignificant,' she told the committee.

'We would be portrayed as a country with significantly higher sovereign risk.'

Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research principal analyst Jason Ward said the PRRT was not a bad regime for oil but was completely unsuitable for Australia's booming offshore gas industry. 

'Years ago, when we reviewed comparative tax and royalty regimes, the only country which appeared to be worse than Australia in collecting a fair return was the United Kingdom,' he said on Wednesday.

Since then, the UK has implemented a windfall profits tax on energy companies.

The Centre also dismissed industry suggestions tax changes would threaten future investment and create sovereign risk as a 'scare tactic'.