Central Petroleum Inks Oz Pipe MoU
Sydney-listed Central Petroleum has signed a memorandum of understanding with Australian Gas Infrastructure Group (AGIG) and Macquarie Mereenie to progress towards a final investment decision (FID) for the development of the Amadeus to Moomba gas pipeline (AMGP), it said on August 18.
The AMGP will provide direct access from the Amadeus Basin in the Northern Territory (NT) to the Moomba gas supply hub in South Australia.
The MoU provides for the progress on an exclusive basis towards various milestones for the development of the AMGP, including a foundation gas transportation agreement and an FID in the second half 2021. The MoU contains the initial proposed AMGP gas transportation tariff structure, provision for gas storage services on the pipeline, and other foundation shipper entitlements.
The construction of the pipeline is expected to start in 2022 with deliveries of first gas in Q1 of 2024. “The AMGP is strongly aligned with various initiatives to boost east coast gas supply as traditional supplies from Bass Strait and the Cooper Basin decline,” Central’s CEO Leon Devaney, said. “When you look at the distribution of untapped gas resources across Australia, the AMGP makes perfect sense given the large volumes of onshore and offshore gas available in the NT.”
Central supplies gas to customers in the Northern Territory and Mt Isa. In order to sell gas into the southern parts of the east coast market, gas is transported over 2,200-km via Mt Isa to the Moomba gas supply hub in South Australia. “The AMGP would be less than half that distance, allowing for significantly lower gas transportation costs from the NT to the east coast via a direct pipeline connection to Moomba,” Central said.
The AMGP is planned to be a 950-km, up to 16-in pipeline with capacity of 124 terajoules/day, and would be expandable with compression. The AMGP project is well defined, having previously completed font-end engineering and design as the subject of a firm offer by AGIG under the North East Gas Interconnect process conducted in 2015, Central said.