Gas company Santos hopes to get a licence for the proposed Hunter gas pipeline within a year and start piping gas out of Narrabri to solve east coast supply woes.
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CEO Kevin Gallagher said Santos is also in negotiations with the Northern Territory government and major infrastructure owners in the territory on providing emergency gas.
The Narrabri gas project in NSW could supply half the gas used in the state's homes and businesses.
But Santos has stopped spending capital on the fully approved project, with an appeal by traditional owners Gomeroi pending against the granting of native title.
"We've got great relations with Gomeroi," Mr Gallagher said at a gas industry conference in Adelaide on Thursday.
"There's a few Gomeroi applicants who are not happy about the project" but Santos expected to be "through that process soon", he said.
All gas from Narrabri will go into the domestic market, and the project has the support of the recently elected NSW Labor government
"We've got the easement, all we need is a licence for that pipeline," Mr Gallagher said, ahead of consultations with landholders along the route.
"The minute we get that licence, I've said to the NSW government we'd be able to get online in two-and-a-half years," he said.
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Asked whether federal intervention in the market had deterred Santos, Mr Gallagher said the company was doing everything to maintain supply.
"I think the government's beginning to understand the critical role that gas has to play," he said.
"Obviously there's been a number of interventions ... we're dealing with those and getting on with the job."
Santos was given the green light in December to proceed with its major coal seam gas project in Narrabri, despite traditional owners' concerns about the impacts of climate change and the preservation of indigenous culture.
The National Native Title Tribunal ruled proposed mining leases should be granted for the Narrabri gas project, in northern NSW, which would include 850 new gas wells across about 92,000 ha, including in the Pilliga state forest.
The Gomeroi people made a Native Title claim on the area in 2011, but it is yet to be determined by the Federal Court.
A group of 19 Gomeroi people told the tribunal Santos did not negotiate in good faith and argued the project would contribute to climate change and have "grave and irreversible" consequences for the land, water and their culture.
Australian Associated Press
