MELBOURNE�Duke Energy International plans to build a $380 million (Aus.) natural gas pipeline from Victoria state across Bass Strait to Tasmania.
The gas will come from Esso/BHP�s Bass Strait fields and be processed at the Longford plant. Construction of the line is expected to begin in mid-2001 and be completed in the first half of 2002.
The 305-km line will have landfall at Bell Bay on the north coast, where the 240-Mw Bell Bay power station will be reconfigured to operate on gas. Other major customers will be the Tasmanian electricity utility, Hydro Tasmanian, and Australian Bulk Minerals, which operates an iron ore pellet plant near Stanley on the northwest coast.
The pipeline will have an initial capacity of 40 petajoules.
Duke is shaping up as the major carrier of Bass Strait gas to southeastern Australia, having brought its Longford-to-Sydney Eastern Gas Pipeline on stream earlier this year (OGJ Online, Aug. 18, 2000).
The South Australian government has identified Duke as one of several potential suppliers to supplement the Santos Ltd. pipeline system, which brings in gas from the Cooper Basin.
