Australian LNG sours for the locals
Exporters have prioritised foreign markets and the domestic price has spiked, angering consumers back home
Selling a commodity to foreign markets instead of the local one was always going to lift prices in the home market. But no one expected this. Eighteen months after Australia’s LNG-export surge began, local spot gas prices are now triple those paid by Japanese buyers of gas sourced from newly minted Queensland facilities. The inflation has caught regulators and the government on the hop. It shouldn’t have: large industrial consumers have repeatedly said that gas producers are prioritising long-term LNG-export contracts over the local market and pitching domestic prices at higher-than-international rates to gouge a captive market. As far back as 2011, when BG sanctioned Queensland Curtis LNG (
Also in this section
13 March 2026
Brussels is again weighing a cap on gas prices amid the Hormuz crisis, but the measure could backfire by deterring the LNG cargoes Europe urgently needs
12 March 2026
Emergency oil stocks provide a last line of defence to oil market shocks, so the IEA’s unprecedented 400m bl release represents something of a double-edged sword
12 March 2026
LPG could rapidly expand access to clean cooking across Africa and prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths from indoor air pollution each year, but infrastructure shortages and regulatory barriers are slowing investment and market growth
11 March 2026
Missiles over Dubai and disruption in Hormuz are testing the emirate’s reputation—and shaking the energy hub at the centre of the Gulf economy
