Twelve years after the collapse of a plan to pipe gas from Papua New Guinea to Queensland, the prospect of PNG gas reaching Australia's east coast is tentatively coming back on to the table.

Global Energy Ventures, led by veteran gas businessman and former Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd chief executive Maurice Brand, is in talks to bring gas from Twinza Oil's Pasca A field in the Gulf of Papua to Townsville or Gladstone, transported as compressed natural gas.