Speaking at the South-East Asia Australia Offshore Conference (SEAAOC) in Darwin this week, Martin said a range of measures, including tax concessions, should be considered to encourage new gas-based processing and manufacturing projects.

“We can develop new projects based on ammonia, methanol, olefins and their derivatives,” she said.

“These can be used to produce everything from explosives for mining to the plastic used to make black polypipe and garden furniture. We can’t afford to send every molecule of gas overseas – we must add value to it here in Australia.

“We have 150 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, with a potential value of somewhere between $500 billion and $700 billion, and we must make the most of it.”

Martin said she hoped to spark a national debate on the use of natural gas.

The Western Australian Government has called for up to 10% of gas from future major liquefied natural gas developments to be set aside for domestic use so that large industrial users could have access to substantial quantities of cheap gas.

But Federal Industry and Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane has expressed strong opposition to this proposal.

Martin said the Federal and Northern Territory Governments have set up a working group to encourage the development of new gas-processing industries.