Incitec is the largest gas user on Australia’s east coast. Its major plants, Phosphate Hill and Moranbah, are covered by long-term contracts.

Johns, who has been outspoken on the need for intervention to control gas costs, said the company continued to talk to the government about the issue.

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“The important thing is, we have a lot of exposure in North America to competitive gas. That’s really underpinned our billion-dollar profit this year and our focus will be to continue to manage [that exposure] inside the markets that we participate in,” Johns said.

In a signal that local gas prices are biting, Incitec recently signed a joint venture with the Modern Chemicals group to explore developing an ammonium nitrate plant in Saudi Arabia. If that goes ahead, it will come with a deep-water port and access to gas at very competitive prices.

“Whenever we make an investment, we look at long-term policy certainty and global competitiveness,” she said.

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