Opening up tenders for both the building and operating of the North East Gas interconnector, the NT government said this morning that proposals would be accepted for both existing routes that have been flagged by government – or any other route that industry would like to suggest linking the NT and NSW gas grids.

The NT government has granted “major project” status to the North East Gas Interconnector, for which two routes have been proposed – one from Tennant Creek to Mt Isa in Queensland and the other from Alice Springs to Moomba in South Australia.

With NSW and Victoria frozen in drilling bans and Queensland’s CSG tied up to the gargantuan LNG projects, the eastern states face a gas shortage from winter 2016

The NT is estimated to have over 200 trillion cubic feet of unconventional gas resources in six onshore basins and 30Tcf of conventional offshore reserves.

NT Chief Minister Adam Giles signed a memorandum of understanding with New South Wales Premier Mike Baird in Sydney last week, agreeing to “work closely on the pipeline project to promote development of a national, competitive domestic gas market”

Submissions close at 2pm CST on December 15.

Giles said interest in the interconnector was gathering momentum, judging by the more than 100 people who attended an industry briefing in Alice Springs at the end of last month.

“Momentum is building for this nation-building project which has the potential to transform the Territory’s gas industry, create jobs in our regions and improve energy security on the east coast,” Giles said.

“The pipeline offers the private sector a unique opportunity to lead the development of a nationally significant infrastructure project.

“States along the eastern seaboard urgently need to find new sources of energy and the North East Gas Interconnector is an attractive solution.”

Federal industry minister Ian Macfarlane, who first suggested the idea, said such a pipeline linking the NT with eastern Australia had the potential to make a major contribution to the development of Australia’s gas markets by providing new sources of supply and increasing competition.

“A pipeline could also provide an opportunity for new suppliers to unlock Australia’s large unconventional gas resources across central and northern Australia, helping to build a more dynamic and secure national energy market,” he said.