Jemena has completed construction of the A$800m ($603m) Northern Gas Pipeline (NGP), an inter-state gas transmission pipeline laid between Northern Territory (NT) and Queensland in Australia.
Image: Jemena completes construction of Northern Gas Pipeline. Photo: courtesy of outgunned21/Freeimages.com.
The 622km long Northern Gas Pipeline, which broke ground in last July, transports gas procured from the gas fields in NT to the Australian east coast gas market.
The Jemena pipeline project comprises nearly 34,000 lengths of pipe which have been welded, lowered in and fully buried in the trench.
It has been laid between Tennant Creek in NT and Mount Isa in Queensland with an objective to play an important role in addressing the east-coast gas supply crisis.
Jemena corporate development executive general manager Antoon Boey said: “The sheer scale of this project is enormous – the largest current gas pipeline project in Australia. This milestone is due to the fantastic effort of those working in remote, hot and often dusty conditions.
“Overall the project is tracking on schedule. Apart from the pipeline, we’re thrilled that construction of the Mount Isa Compressor Station is finished and completion of the Phillip Creek Compressor Station in the Northern Territory is imminent.”
While a 481km stretch of the Northern Gas Pipeline, mostly in NT and in some part of Queensland, has been built by McConnell Dowell, the remaining 141km stretch in Queensland was built by Spiecapag Australia.
With the completion of the construction of the pipeline, Jemena now plans to carry out rigorous checks of the Northern Gas Pipeline and the two compressor stations before gas commissioning, which is scheduled to occur later this year.
Once commissioned, the NGP pipeline will be able to transport 90TJs of gas per day. Jemena revealed that 70% of available capacity of the gas transmission pipeline in year one has already been contracted.
In June, Jemena signed a deal with Incitec Pivot (IPL) to deliver at least 32TJs of gas per day for the latter’s Gibson Island facility. This follows the company’s foundation agreement with the Northern Territory’s Power & Water to supply 31TJs of gas to IPL’s Phosphate Hill facility for 10 years.