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.