Sydney Morning Herald: APA Group in Talks on NSW Coal Seam Gas Pipelines

Australia's biggest gas pipeline owner, APA Group, is in talks with Santos on a potential new pipeline to transport coal seam gas in New South Wales, as it covers all bases to ensure it is involved in bringing much-needed gas to the state's users.

The pipeline would be about 200 kilometres long and transport gas from Santos's proposed $2 billion Narrabri project to Tamworth to join the existing APA pipeline grid in NSW, Rob Wheals, group executive transmission at Sydney-based APA, said.

APA is also participating keenly in the Northern Territory government process to build a gas pipeline to connect the NT into the eastern grid, and is nearing completion of an expansion of pipeline capacity to bring gas north from Victoria.

"We are not picking winners," Mr Wheals said in Sydney. "We are just making sure that if there is pipeline infrastructure to be built to bring gas to market, whether it is from Victoria, New South Wales or the Northern Territory, we want to be part of that."

Santos's Narrabri project is one of the two leading coal seam gas projects proposed for NSW, with the other being AGL Energy's Gloucester project. APA was also keen to engage with AGL on a possible pipeline for its project, but talks were less advanced, Mr Wheals said. That line would probably go between Gloucester and Newcastle. MORE