Australia to begin importing gas despite being one of the world’s biggest producers
Australia is one of the world's biggest gas exporters but for the first time the country is preparing to do the once unthinkable. It's on the cusp of becoming a gas importer. A company has almost completed building the country's first gas import terminal which squadron energy says will help avoid a looming supply shortage.
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00:00On a dock, alongside reminders of Australia's industrial past, a key piece of the country's
00:08energy future is taking shape.
00:10It's going to be a very sizeable feature here in Port Kembla.
00:13About 100 kilometres south of Sydney, Australia's first gas import terminal is nearly complete.
00:19The centrepiece will be a huge floating plant that can take shipments of liquefied natural
00:25gas, convert it back into a gassier state and pump it into the east coast pipeline.
00:31It's actually over in the northern hemisphere now, helping another country with their energy
00:35crisis, but we forecast to have it back here for winter 2026.
00:41Just in time, the company says, to plug a looming shortfall.
00:45The energy market operator has forecast that within a few years, gas supplies on the east
00:50coast could fall well short of demand at peak times.
00:55That's because reserves in the Bass Strait are running out faster than expected and new
01:00gas fields simply haven't been developed.
01:03I would say, just suffice to say, the outlook is dire.
01:06There are multiple paradoxes here.
01:08The first is that Australia got itself into this mess in the first place and might now
01:12need to buy gas from overseas.
01:15The second is that Andrew Forrest, a clean energy crusader, is making a heavy play into
01:21gas.
01:22A powerful admission of the important role that fossil fuel will play in the renewable
01:26transition.
01:27We're in this position because, quite simply, we've run out of time.
01:31There is no other option that can bring on as much gas as they can.
01:36The Resources Minister reckons the import terminal has a role to play, but her preference
01:41is for more Australian gas to be extracted to meet Australia's needs.
01:46The closer the source of energy is to where it is going to be used, whether it is in households
01:51or manufacturing, the cheaper it is.
01:54Even so, in a desperately unbalanced market, this is a billion dollar gamble that there's
01:59solid money to be made from gas sourced half a world away.