US energy giant Duke shows interest in PNG-to-Queensland gas pipeline
The National, Port Moresby, Thursday September 10
BRISBANE: US-based energy giant Duke Energy Corp has revealed an interest in using its existing and planned Queensland pipeline assets to feed gas from the proposed PNG-to-Queensland pipeline into Brisbane.
Duke subsidiary Duke Energy International (DEI) took a foothold in the Australian market in June this year when it purchased the local energy assets of PG&E Corp, including the 627-kilometre Queensland State Gas Pipeline. The nine-year-old pipeline, originally owned by the Queensland government, extends from Wallumbilla, 500km west of Brisbane, north-east into Gladstone and Rockhampton.
DEI's Asian managing director Michael McDanold said a Brisbane Pipeline Project, inherited from PG&E which would link Wallumbilla to north Brisbane was in the advanced feasibility stage.
He said DEI was also looking closely at Chevron Asiatic's proposed multi-billion dollar PNG to Queensland gas pipeline project, which would take gas from the PNG Highlands to industrial consumers in Townsville and Gladstone.
"Chevron is a large enough project that it has implications for south-east Queensland that are pretty significant," Brisbane-based Mr McDanold said.
He said the PNG-to-Queensland pipeline would introduce a new, large source of gas supply, which would enhance the bankability of several industrial and power generation opportunities.
"Our pipeline offers the opportunity to move that in conjunction with the Brisbane pipeline from Gladstone down into Brisbane," Mr McDanold said. "We would certainly be interested in ways to do that and ways to enhance the development of the Brisbane market with gas from Papua New Guinea should the pipeline get built."
Mr McDanold estimated that the Brisbane gas pipeline project would cost roughly A$150 million (K200 million) and need about 20 to 30 petajoules of demand to underwrite it. "We're reasonably confident of the chosen path and it is really down to adequate supply and market to make it work," he said.
He said DEI expected to sign up a gas-fired power station for the Brisbane pipeline in the next six months or so. The existing Queensland State Gas Pipeline currently operated at about 70 per cent of its 27 petajoule capacity, up from 60 per cent when PG&E acquired it in 1996, Mr McDanold said. DEI chief executive officer Bruce Williamson said DEI was targeting further developments in Australia, particularly in eastern states. -AAP
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