Falling production at one of the country’s largest gas plants and a forecast slide in supply from fields off the south-eastern coast is making increasingly inevitable what had been dismissed as unlikely development only a few years ago: the need to import LNG.

The market operator has warned for months of looming shortfalls in gas – used in everything from manufacturing to heating homes – and fears of supply problems have spread beyond the major energy retailers. Other major companies examining the possibility of importing LNG now include Snowy Hydro, Woodside Energy, Shell and industrial users, including explosives manufacturer Orica and steel producer BlueScope.