Focus on export LNG is causing domestic shortage IF the answer to any important question is untenable, then clearly you need to ask a different question. Why, I ask, is Australia's domestic natural gas price trebled when the evidence says we have a huge surplus of gas? The usual answer: this is the market at work. I do not accept that. I have never before seen a market that responds to a very large increment of supply with a huge price increase. The driver for this is extremely large volumes committed to new projects that will export liquefied natural gas, so much so that there is now a domestic shortage.