Sydney — Australian Industrial Energy, or AIE, is intending to lift the planned capacity of its Port Kembla LNG project amid gas shortage concerns in southeast Australia, but the start up of production could be delayed.

"AIE confirms that it has advised the New South Wales Government that in the face of substantially higher customer demand for gas supply and throughput capacity at its Port Kembla Gas Terminal, it will be seeking a modification to its existing Development Consent for an expanded terminal capacity to accommodate a winter peak throughput of up to 750 Tj/d," an AIE spokesperson said via email Wednesday.

"While the planning modification process will take some time, AIE remains confident that it can develop the project in advance of customer needs," he said.

AIE has a supply agreement with EnergyAustralia for 15 Pj/year from 2021.

The existing development consent is for the project to receive an LNG shipment every two to three weeks and provide for an annual supply of up to 100 Pj of gas.

The timeframe for the start up was scheduled for late 2020.

The project was given development consent by the New South Wales Government in April, post it being designated as critical state significant infrastructure last year.

Earlier this month, South Korean EPIK's plan to import LNG into Australia's Port of Newcastle was also given critical infrastructure status by NSW. EPIK said at the time that it's planning for operations to begin in the first half of 2021.

Australia currently does not import any LNG but there are a number of proposals in place to begin the process.

Along with AIE's and EPIK's proposals, there are two plans for the neighboring state of Victoria, which include AGL's Crib Point and one by ExxonMobil. Venice Energy also has a plan to develop one at Port Adelaide in South Australia.

-- Nathan Richardson, newsdesk@spglobal.com

-- Edited by Manish Parashar, manishparashar@spglobal.com