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Australia's LNG Exports Face Review Amid Gas Crisis at Home

  • Competition regulator says Santos buying gas from local market
  • Prime Minister Turnbull to meet energy producers Wednesday
A worker crosses a walkway at a plant at the Queensland Curtis Liquefied Natural Gas project site in Gladstone, Australia.

A worker crosses a walkway at a plant at the Queensland Curtis Liquefied Natural Gas project site in Gladstone, Australia.

Photographer: Patrick Hamilton/Bloomberg
Updated on

Australia’s competition regulator said the possible sale of natural gas intended for the country’s domestic market to overseas customers instead must be reviewed amid high wholesale prices at home.

Ahead of a meeting Wednesday between Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and energy producers over Australia’s potential gas shortages, the regulator said the ability of the Santos Ltd.-led Gladstone LNG project to export third-party gas must be examined. The $18.5 billion project will buy more than 20 percent of gas available for users on the country’s east coast this year due to shortages from its own fields, according to consultancy Wood Mackenzie Ltd.