Sydney Morning Herald: APA Group Eyes Gas Storage Investment After Being 'Stunned' by Iona Price

Gas pipeline giant APA Group sees a new opportunity opening up in gas storage after being soundly beaten in the bidding for the Iona gas plant by Queensland Investment Corporation's $1.78 billion deal.

The deal signalled to APA that players were willing to pay much higher prices to store the fuel. 

Though he did not confirm rumours that APA's bid for Iona was about $600 million lower than the winning bid, managing director Mick McCormack  said he was "absolutely stunned" by the price QIC paid EnergyAustralia for the underground plant in Victoria.

"With the numbers we think have been paid there, that's given us a huge amount of headroom to go and put up a competitive offering; we could look at other options for storage," Mr McCormack said.

Asked whether that meant APA would consider building its own gas storage plants, he said "absolutely". MORE