NT points to Australian gas pipeline alternatives

Northern Territory's (NT) government plans to discuss the prospect of building a pipeline linking central Australia's gas fields of to the east coast connecting through the Moomba gas processing station.

Australian gas pipeline operator APA is already studying three options linking the NT with east coast markets. But comments by NT chief minister Adam Giles suggest the government is looking at alternatives to the APA plan.

"The territory is working with the federal government and relevant states to secure private investment in the pipeline. There is already strong interest from a number of key industry players nationally and internationally," Giles said.

Giles will be meeting with all of Australia's heads of state, territory and federal government at the Council of Australian Governments in Canberra where he plans to talk about the gas pipeline.

"There is mounting investor interest in a pipeline from Alice Springs to Moomba, linking the territory's vast stranded gas reserves with the national energy grid," Giles said. "We have the gas and they have the demand but there is currently no economically viable way to get the gas from Northern Australia to the eastern market."

The NT government estimates that there is in excess of 270 trillion ft³ (7.65bn m³) of conventional and unconventional gas resources in the territory, both onshore and offshore.

APA's first option is a 620km pipeline linking the 1,629km Amadeus gas pipeline — which is owned and operated by APA in NT — with the mining town of Mount Isa in Queensland, where the 840km Carpentaria gas pipeline runs from to Ballera in southwest Queensland.

The second APA option is a 1,100km pipeline from the southern end of the Amadeus gas pipeline to South Australia's Moomba, the main processing plant for gas from the Cooper basin.

The third option is a 700km pipeline that starts about 150km south of NT's Tennant Creek to the Carpentaria pipeline.

km/rjd

Send comments to feedback@argusmedia.com

If you would like to review other ArgusMedia.com content options, request more information about Argus' energy news, data and analysis services.

Copyright © 2014 Argus Media Ltd - www.ArgusMedia.com - All rights reserved.