Rick Wilkinson
OGJ Correspondent
MELBOURNE, May 13 -- A natural gas link between Queensland, South Australia, and New South Wales has finally been completed with the opening this week of two new lines and compression facilities in Queensland.
Epic Energy built the 180-km, 400-mm high-pressure gas line, known as the Queensland-South Australia-New South Wales (QSN) line, which will transport gas from the Wallumbilla gas hub in eastern Queensland through the company's Southwest Queensland line to connect with the Moomba-Adelaide and Moomba-Sydney lines.
A second, 113-km, 400-mm line, commissioned by AGL Energy, will transport gas from a point about 8½ km east of Miles near the Condamine electric power station in central-eastern Queensland to the Wallumbilla hub.
Epic has increased the flow capacity of its Southwest Queensland line with construction of a midline compressor facility, while AGL designed and built a Wallumbilla compressor station to enable gas from AGL's Berwyndale coalseam methane field to enter the high pressure SouthwWest Queensland line.
Completion of all this work means there is an interconnected eastern Australian pipeline network that will provide a level of security of gas supply to customers in New South Wales and South Australia.