Coal seam gas miner Metgasco says it has been asked to consider gas projects outside New South Wales after new government regulations led to it suspending its operations in the state.

A day after CSG player Dart Energy announced it would suspend its NSW operations and sack 70 per cent of its staff, Metgasco chief executive Peter Henderson said his company is receiving invitations to invest in projects in other parts of Australia and overseas.

“We are getting more as time goes on,” Mr Henderson said.

Metgasco, which owns gas reserves on the NSW north coast, suspended its operations in March, blaming state government regulations announced in February, which imposed a 2km exclusion zone around residential areas and banned CSG operations in certain viticulture and horse stud centres.

Mr Henderson said Dart’s decision came as no surprise.

“It was the only course of action they could take,” he said.

“It will also be another message to the NSW government that they can’t muck around like this and wreck the industry.”

In an interview with AAP last Thursday, before Dart made its announcement, Mr Henderson said Metgasco had $25 million in cash reserves after putting its gas drilling operations on hold and laying off most of its staff.

He said while he was confident the NSW gas market, and the political environment, would turn around by 2015, the company had to consider what the best use of its capital would be.

“We have been approached by a number of parties saying `would you like to join us’ elsewhere, or overseas,” he said.

Dart Energy shares closed at a record low of 4.5 cents, down almost 24 per cent, after falling by more than a third on Tuesday.

Metgasco shares are also at a record low of six cents, after dropping 0.6 cents on Wednesday.