Australia’s gas market is at a crossroads. New gas resources are moving closer to production, but their value to households, manufacturers, and the wider economy will depend on whether we can transport that gas to market quickly and at a competitive cost.
The challenge is most immediate in the Beetaloo Basin, one of Australia’s most promising new gas resources.
With the Basin commencing commercial production this month, governments and industry must now decide how supporting infrastructure should develop. Build too slowly and new supply may not reach customers when it is needed. Build too much, too soon, and unnecessary costs risk weakening the economics of the basin before it has had the opportunity to grow.
This challenge is something Jemena has considered deeply over the last two years as we have spent time hearing from producers and customers across the Northern Territory, Queensland, and other parts of Australia about their infrastructure needs.
From these conversations, two points are clear.
The first; we will need a range of supply and transportation solutions to solve Australia’s gas challenge.
And the second, new basins should not be burdened with the cost of oversized projects designed well ahead of demonstrated need.
The most practical response then is not to start from scratch – we should first make better use of the extensive gas transmission network already beneath our feet, expanding it progressively as production and demand increase. This would bring new supply to market sooner, limit the upfront cost imposed on emerging producers, and reduce the risk of investing in major infrastructure before it is required.
Jemena’s Northern Gas Pipeline (NGP) provides an example of this principle in action. Currently, the NGP can transport about 90 terajoules of gas a day to Australia’s east coast. However, a series of targeted upgrades could increase that capacity to approximately 130 terajoules a day, equivalent to around 10 per cent of current east coast demand.
For the Beetaloo’s early commercial phase, upgrading the NGP is the fastest and most efficient way to move gas to customers and provides producers with a pathway to market without waiting for the development of new infrastructure.
The same principle applies in southern Australia where existing pipelines can be reconfigured to improve access to supply and strengthen the resilience of the broader market.
Here, Jemena has already made its Eastern Gas Pipeline partially bidirectional, allowing it to transport gas from the Port Kembla Energy Terminal to east coast customers. We are also progressing an $80 million investment to make the pipeline fully bidirectional. This would allow gas from northern supply sources to move south to major demand centres in New South Wales and Victoria.
Taken together, these northern and southern projects demonstrate the value which can be captured by unlocking greater capacity in our existing assets, rather than treating each new source of supply as a reason to build an entirely new pipeline.
Gas remains important to manufacturers, businesses, and households, as well as to the reliability of Australia’s energy system as coal generation retires. Getting infrastructure decisions right will affect not only whether new gas sources can be developed, but also how quickly and affordably it can reach the people and industries that depend on it.
Standing at this crossroads, the next step then must be to use our existing networks more intelligently: unlock available capacity, reconfigure where necessary, and expand when production justifies the investment.
As a leading energy infrastructure company, Jemena owns and operates some of Australia’s most important electricity and gas assets, and through their renewable gas initiatives they play an important role in the big picture of the transition to net zero. Learn more at partofthebigpicture.com.au.
‘David Gillespie’s recent op-ed article published in The Australian, 24 Sept 2026’