Major industries in Gladstone including projects owned by Rio Tinto and Orica are scrambling to deal with a significant reduction in gas supply to the region after a fire on a pipeline forced an emergency workaround to prevent costly plant shutdowns.

The fire on Tuesday affecting the Queensland Gas Pipeline, owned by Jemena, caused the Australian Energy Market Operator to step in, citing a “risk or threat to the adequacy or reliability of supply within the east coast gas system”.