The business community has split over its support for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's intervention aimed at east coast gas producers which have been blamed for causing shortages and price hikes in the local gas market.

While the resource sector scrambled for more details of how the policy would work, Mr Turnbull backed away from suggestions early on Thursday that export controls - in which the government could limit gas companies' exports if they were taking more gas from the domestic market for export than they produced - could lead to a halving of gas prices for business customers.