Energy Minister Ian Macfarlane told the roundtable that batteries would play a big role but their prices needed to fall further and their lifetimes be extended.

Mr Macfarlane said the fact that construction workers were being laid off in the oil and gas industry would hopefully lead to labour costs falling to a more competitive level, but the first step in solving the problem lies with the industry.

"I think the industry has realised that they too need to do that, The days of $18 gas into Japan are perhaps fading and so their gas price is lower they must keep their costs under control. Sharing infrastructure is part of that."

Gas export industry must earn its place

Australia's gas export industry has to "earn its place in the queue" against other competing energy sources, having fallen out of the running on competitiveness, Mr Coleman said.

The industry, which will complete a $250 billion wave of investment in the next couple of years, can't just sit back and rely on expected increasing demand for cleaner energy in Asia to underpin a new wave of investment in LNG supply, he said.

"There's an opportunity there but it's for us to grab; it's not an opportunity that is going to sit there and wait for us."

Mr Coleman said the next wave of LNG projects in Australia, such as Woodside's own Browse floating LNG project, was "not going to happen naturally" and had to be earned.


"We've lost our place in the queue; we're going to have to earn that place again," Mr Coleman said.

"The way we do it is becoming a reliable producer showing that we are investment friendly and showing that we can market and trade with the best of them in the world."

Collaboration and leveraging off the huge amount of LNG infrastructure built in the boom would be vital to secure a new wave of investment in the sector, said Santos vice president, strategy and corporate development, Peter Cleary.

"We've built a lot of LNG infrastructure in this country; we've now got to start to utilise that more efficiently," he said. "Building new plant everywhere around Australia is not a good way to keep your costs down. If we can use that brownfield opportunity we can grow with the Asian market."