A second proposal to provide a gas pipeline link between the Australian states of Victoria and New South Wales has surfaced(25349 bytes)
East Australian Pipeline Ltd. (EAPL), owned 51% by Australian Gas Light Co., and Victoria's state owned Gas Transmission Corp. (GTC) will study the feasibility of connecting Albury on the Victoria-New South Wales border with Wagga Wagga in southern New South Wales with a 132 km gas pipeline.
Albury is linked to Victoria's grid, which is fed by Bass Strait gas. Wagga Wagga is tied into the Moomba Sydney line that carries gas from the Cooper basin.
A link between the two would give Sydney consumers access to Bass Strait gas and create competition for Cooper basin producers. It would be an open access, common carrier line.
GTC said the pipeline would encourage national producer competition and ensure long term security of gas supply in Victoria and New South Wales. EAPL added that the link Would provide opportunities for gas sales by producers in Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia.
EAPL also owns and operates the Moomba-Sydney gas pipeline. GTC owns and operates the Victoria high pressure gas transmission network previously operated by Gas & Fuel Corp. of Victoria.
COMPETING PROPOSALS
The EAPL-GTC proposal came to light just 2 months after BHP Petroleum Ply. Ltd., Melbourne, and Westcoast Energy Inc., Vancouver, B.C., disclosed their study for laying a 700 km gas pipeline from Longford, site of the Bass Strait onshore gas plant, to Sydney via Canberra (see map, Apr. 10, p. 28). That project is expected to cost $450 million (Australian).
EAPL and GTC claim their plan for a shorter pipeline between Albury and Wagga Wagga would be faster and cheaper to build and make best use of existing lines.
It is expected to cost $300 million and could be on stream by 1997. That cost estimate includes construction of the pipeline link, some looping, and adding compression to the present pipeline grid.
Plans call for design capacity of about 178 MMcfd
