Australian gas pipeline group APA forecasts around A$8bn ($6.22bn) of capital expenditure (capex) investment is required for such infrastructure by 2040. But this is dwarfed by projected investment required in renewable energy and the electrification of the Australian economy as part of the country's energy transition.
APA predicts around A$40bn of investment is required for Australia's renewable energy sector to provide new supplies, power storage and electricity firming services, with a further A$20bn needed in new power transmission infrastructure as part of a wider plan to electrify the domestic economy to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, APA chief executive Rob Wheals said at the firm's investor day.
The company did not specify where the new gas infrastructure was required, but APA's most recent planned investment in Australia's gas pipeline network is to expand capacity in east Australia by 25pc. This will take additional winter peak gas from northern markets to southern markets as more of east Australia's gas is dependent on supplies from Queensland's onshore coal-bed methane fields, with traditional production from fields offshore Victoria in decline.
The Australian federal government unveiled a gas-fired economic recovery plan in September last year that included funds to finance undeveloped gas fields in the Beetaloo basin in the Northern Territory and the North Bowen and Galilee basins in Queensland. These will all require new gas pipelines to connect producing fields to the consumer for domestic use or for LNG exports.
