Former Santos chief executive John Ellice-Flint has declared that much of the east coast's gas supply problem could be solved in one fell swoop with the construction of a 200-kilometre pipeline to tap into Queensland's gas-rich Bowen Basin.

Mr Ellice-Flint, executive chairman of junior Queensland gas explorer Blue Energy, said the "missing link" in the gas grid, which would cost $300 million to $500 million, would open up access to about 10,000 petajoules of gas resources in the Bowen Basin, providing needed gas much more quickly than new exploration could do.