While the rest of Australia struggles to manage a man-made shortage of gas, Slugcatcher can see WA heading towards a glut, and a remarkable revival of a relationship which has already created billions of dollars in iron ore wealth.

The twin keys to what's happening is a process of unlocking the potential of Perth Basin gas deposits with Gina Rinehart driving one side of a potential transaction and Sam Walsh on the other side.

Rinehart is the owner of Hancock Energy which teamed up with Korea's Posco to buy Senex Energy two years ago and later stamped its logo on the gas-rich region north of Perth through two corporate deals, first through the takeover of Warrego Energy and last year through the acquisition of the gas assets of Mineral Resources. Next target is Strike Energy.

Walsh is chairman of the Australian arm of the Japanese giant Mitsui & Co., which owns half of the Perth Basin's Waitsia gas project. Beach Energy owns the other half. Walsh is also an external director on the board of the Japanese parent company.

The team of Mitsui and Beach has been selling gas into the domestic WA market for several years and has won the right to export a portion, creating an avenue for expanded exports if enough gas can be found to first satisfy local demand.

Rinehart potentially has some gas to sell into the Beach/Mitsui arrangement from her Warrego/MinRes deals, but she could soon have more to sell as the way is cleared for her to buy Strike, a gasfield partner undergoing a management shuffle as well as looking for a value-creating transaction.

The Strike situation came to a head last week when (as reported in ENB) its chief executive, Stuart Nicholls, tossed in the towel and announced his resignation, promptly followed by a statement from Strike that it was undertaking a strategic review aimed at "maximising value" for Strike shareholders – management speak for a sale.

As the tetra pieces dropped into place, Slugcatcher had a sense of déjà vu, that curious experience of have been here before – which he had exactly 20 years ago.

It was in 2005, when Walsh was chief executive of Rio Tinto's iron ore business (and later chief executive of the parent company) that he successfully persuaded Rinehart to sell a 50% stake in her Hope Downs project rather than accept an offer from Kumba Resources, a subsidiary of South Africa's Anglo American.

That deal effectively launched Rinehart on the road to a fortune currently estimated by Forbes magazine to stand at US$30 billion, making her Australia's richest person and 61st richest in the world.

How easy it is, with that background, to imagine Sam and Gina getting back together over a cuppa, perhaps at the Royal Kings Park Tennis Club in central Perth were her dad, the late Lang Hancock, held court (in more ways than one), whipping a few backhands over the net and later doing business over a beer.

This time around Sam and Gina are being drawn together by a different commodity but the basic rules are the same - how to create wealth by working together rather than competing, something the Japanese appreciate which means Mitsui will be interested in whatever deal Sam takes to Tokyo for approval.

While opportunity abounds, hurdles for Act 2 of the Gina and Sam show remain to be cleared, including the acquisition of Strike after Nicholls leaves the room, and possibly having to outbid Beach if its ultimate boss, media and tractor tycoon Kerry Stokes, feels obliged to enter the sales process.

Then comes working out a formula to expand the resource base while also working out a way to connect gas deposits as well as pushing for the right to export a portion with Mitsui waiting in the wings to handle that end of the deal.

If this vision of a grand bargain evolving comes true then something even bigger becomes a little clearer, and that's the potential for WA to develop a gas glut as the rest of the country suffers gas starvation.

Five clues point to a possible west coast gas surplus, starting with a pro-gas political shift best demonstrated in the words of WA Energy (and Environment) Minister Reece Whitby when he said earlier this month: "Right now, gas is good."

Then there is the growing rejection of hard core and often illogical environment social and governance laws as explored in this column last week (The dead hand of ESG and DEI is weakening, ENB, January 13) which pointing to the sea-change in the public mood.

The third indicator was the specular own goal kicked by environmental protesters when their claims against the Barossa gas project were exposed in court as fabrications, raising doubts in the electorate about other campaigns, including those being mounted against the Browse project of Woodside Energy.

The fourth positive sign for gas in WA is the move by Woodside to clear the way for a Browse go-ahead, including an asset swap with Chevron and reports of early inquiries with ship builders for two floating production vessels.

But the fifth clue is the one Slugcatcher has been watching evolve over the last two years and that's Rinehart's growing involvement in the Perth Basin.

Each of those events is moving at their own pace but they are all moving in the same direction.

Rinehart's plans for the Perth Basin are likely to be the newsmaker in the first half of this year as she applies the grit, for which she is famous, and the cash, of which she has oodles, and uses the contacts, of which she has plenty, to make things happen.

The stars, as they say, are aligning – and never forget that the biggest stars in our solar system are gas giants.