Australia is considering reserving a part of the domestic gas production for domestic market, as the Ministries of Resources and of Energy plan to review some policies, including gas supply, pipeline access, and price transparency by February 2021. The Australian government has long resisted against such gas reservation policies, considering that they would distort prices and would affect new production in the long term. However, it has come under pressure to boost gas supply and cut prices after wholesale gas prices tripled over the past five years, following the start up of LNG exports from eastern Australia. The gas reservation policy would only apply to future developments and would not affect Western Australia.
In 2017, the government introduced the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism, which requires the Ministry of Resources to decide every year whether to limit LNG exports from Queensland to avoid local gas shortage. The government now plans to review this mechanism.