The new 275-km long pipeline will transport gas from the Blacktip offshore field to the Amadeus Basin to Darwin Pipeline (ABDP), in which APA owns a 96% share. Last year, a separate plan to pipe gas 1000km from Blacktip to supply Alcan’s alumina refinery at Gove was abandoned after talks between Eni and Alcan faltered.
APA chief executive Mick McCormack said since the previous plan for the trans-Territory pipeline was discarded APA had been “knocking on doors” for possible new deals in the Northern Terrotory. “Even though the trans-Territory pipeline died, we always had the view that Power & Water Corp needed gas,” he said. “We have been looking very actively for a new gas supply to Darwin which can use our current pipeline (ABDP).”
The planned pipeline will be able to deliver about 30 petajoules/yr of gas, and the final route and capacity are expected to be finalised by the end of this month. “It’s not our biggest project. However, it’s very important for our business up in the Northern Territory,” Mr McCormack said. The pipeline would take the dry season of 2008 to build, with first gas expected to be delivered in January, 2009. “We’ve put $130 million on it. We’ve done a lot of these sorts of things, and we are pretty confident we will control the costs and get it done on time and on budget,” he said.
