Central wants to see backhaul tariffs on existing east coast pipelines reduced - something that is also likely to be a concern to Northern Gas Pipeline developer Jemena, which has aspirations to extend the pipeline beyond Mount Isa.

Central previously offered 20-25 petajoules per annum into the NGP as gas available from Mereenie, Palm Valley and Dingo, however this has not progressed due to the prohibitive backhaul tariffs on the Amadeus and Carpentaria pipelines, Central claims.

Central managing director Richard Cottee, who has accepted part of the blame for sparking the CSG-LNG revolution in Australia that is taxing east coast gas supplies, says the Council of Australian Governments proposed review of gas market regulation is vital to helping increase investment in new gas supply ahead of the predicted east coast gas shortage from2018.

Days after Victoria slammed shut the gate on its own domestic gas potential until the next decade, Cottee says he has significant supplies of gas already available to help address the looming gas shortage in five states peaking from 2018-19, but he says a lack of economic regulation for existing and mature pipelines has distorted market pricing signals needed to bring new gas supplies to market.

He says this is "unnecessarily elevating delivered gas prices for customers and constricting the critical investment in new gas supplies" which is needed to address supply shortages which are already starting to emerge.

"Critical infrastructure in the form of the Northern Gas Pipeline is now being constructed to link the available gas supplies in central Australia with the major east coast demand centres," Cottee said.

"The regulatory review, ordered by the August meeting of COAG energy ministers will be critical if the east coast manufacturing and domestic users are to avoid supply shortages and major price rises from 2018."

The COAG meeting last month raised concerns that current test for pipeline regulations does not appear to be working, and a new test may be needed to put downward pressure on transport prices.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has similar concerns.

Central and Santos, the NT's third largest gas producer, have proven production capacity that is ready to supply the east coast as soon as the NGP is completed in 2018, however some of those reserves in conventional sandstone reservoirs may eventually require fracture stimulation.

"At the Mereenie JV (Central 50%/Santos 50%) alone Central operates 59 wells drilled and capable of production, none of which require additional fraccing going forward," Cottee said.

"Of these wells, only seven are required to meet the present gas contracts.

"In addition, a further 10 wells have been suspended and could be brought back into production to meet further contractual requirements."

Further, across the Dingo, Palm Valley and Mereenie fields, Central says there is a gross 175PJ of uncontracted gas available for sale into the east coast, and "with appropriate pricing signals" a further 125PJ could be made available from the Stairway Formation in time for the scheduled commissioning of the NGP in 2018, he said.

"Central is focussed on becoming a new gas supplier into the east coast and bringing new gas supplies to a market that will experience gas shortages from 2018," he said.

"Recent events in South Australia may be a harbinger of the future and shows the market tightening earlier than anticipated."

WA-based consultancy RISC said last week that the NGP would at best be able to deliver about 100 terajoules per day of gas into the eastern states' main gas markets, just 5% of the east coast demands.

RISC doesn't see the NGP having a significant impact, and considers an LNG receiving facility in NSW or Victoria may have more of an impact, although Cottee told Energy News that idea is "asinine", and Origin Energy boss Grant King said an east coast LNG terminal would indicate market failure.

Central and Santos aren't alone in wanting to play an increased role in the domgas market.

Inpex has also raised the possibility of supplying gas to the east coast via the NGP.

Eni, which provides 87.6% of the NT's domgas from the offshore Blacktip field in the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf, is also understood to be studying tieback options for the undeveloped Prometheus-Rubicon and Penguin offshore gas discoveries through an expanded Blacktip facility.

French firm Engie has also reportedly engaged Bank of America Merrill Lynch to kick off its Australian asset sale program.

Engie is planning to sell the undeveloped Petrel, Frigate and Tern gas fields in the offshore Bonaparte Basin, which it has previously studied for sources of floating LNG with Santos and SK Energy.

FLNG was considered to be not viable and Engie is expected to take a loss after it spent $500 million buying into the Petrel Sub-basin seven years ago.

Also on the auction block are its power generation assets such as Victorian coal fired generators, Loy Yang B and Hazelwood, and gas-fired Pelican Point in SA and Kwinana in WA, in addition to retailer, Simply Energy

Its Australian assets are reportedly worth up to $2.5 billion.