The construction of a $500 million Hunter Gas Pipeline is ready to begin, but it's all dependent on the approval of the Santos Narrabri Gas Project.
The Narrabri Gas Project will pave the way for a pipeline to run from Narrabri to Newcastle guaranteeing the domestic market with a continuous gas supply, cheaper.
Hunter Gas Pipeline Managing Director Garbis Simonian believes it is ridiculous gas users in NSW pay double what overseas buyers do, with customers in Japan, China, Malaysia, and Korea paying half the price of Australians."Isn't that a ridiculous situation? What we want to do is make sure the gas from Narrabri comes to Newcastle and Sydney and is not hijacked back to Queensland and the way to do that is to use this pipeline," said Garbis Simonian.
Hunter Gas Pipeline say Queensland LNG projects are "hoovering up gas to preserve their own capital" shifting the commercial risk of their investments onto Australian consumers.
The Narrabri Gas project has the potential to supply up to 50 per cent of NSW with natural gas and bring essential gas to Newcastle which can be fed out to the domestic market.
"The Narrabri gas project is before the state government for approval and finally that's moving and the faster the state government can approve it and the fields are developed then we're ready to build the pipeline with Jemena and we can do it in a matter of twelve months," said Garbis Simonian.
Without the fast tracking of the project, Garbis Simonian warns 300, 000 jobs could be lost in gas-reliant manufacturing throughout the state.