Key objectives of the Trust include contributing to the advancement of study, education and research in the fields of gas utilisation and industry development, with an Overseas Study Tour among the activities conducted by the Trust each year. The tour provides an opportunity for selected employees in the Australian gas industry to visit gas-related organisations overseas.
The 2007 AGIT Study Tour group comprised representatives from the upstream, distribution and retail segments of the Australian gas industry who visited five Asian countries during a three week tour. The group – Ross Evans (Origin Energy), Jason Morony (APA Group) and Mark Frewin (TRUenergy) – visited Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore.
Participants met and shared information with industry associations, regulatory authorities, network operators and vertically integrated utilities. The tour was also hosted on numerous site visits to facilities including LNG production and receiving terminals, town gas production facilities, gas technology development centres, district heating and cooling plants, and NGV public refuelling stations.
In Kuala Lumpur, the tour was hosted by Dr Allen Beasley, former Chief Executive of the Australian Pipeline Industry Association, and now Executive Director of the ASCOPE (ASEAN Council on Petroleum) Gas Centre. Dr Beasley outlined the gas centre’s role in promoting market-based gas industries in the ASEAN region, and its aspiration to facilitate development of the Trans-ASEAN Gas Pipeline to enable redistribution of gas throughout the region.
Driven by rapid GDP growth and government energy policies designed to lower particulate emissions and improve air quality, gas demand throughout the region is experiencing unprecedented growth. Major construction projects are underway in all countries visited to build the required infrastructure including transmission pipelines, distribution networks, and LNG receiving terminals needed to meet Asia’s future demand for gas.
One example is that in 2006 Leighton Asia completed a $HK330 million contract for Hong Kong and China Gas Company to construct twin 450 mm concrete coated steel submarine gas pipelines from the DaPeng LNG receiving terminal in Shenzhen, China, to the Tai Po town gas production plant in Hong Kong.
Another example is the proposed construction of an LNG receiving terminal on South Soko Island Hong Kong, together with a 40 km subsea pipeline from the terminal to China Light and Power’s Black Point Power Station. The project is required to be on line by 2012 to meet mandatory particulate emissions targets in the face of the impending depletion of the plant’s current gas supply, the Yacheng gas field in the South China Sea.
Other interesting pipeline applications noted during the tour included the piping of LNG from Japan’s Negsihi terminal to adjacent cold storage warehouses where the cryogenic energy of LNG is used to freeze Yellowfin Tuna to -60°C. District heating and cooling facilities are also common in Asia where heated or chilled water is circulated through several kilometres of insulated 1,500 mm diameter underground pipelines to provide heating and cooling to entire urban neighbourhoods.
The largest pipelines witnessed on the tour were the 3 x 112 inch diameter water pipelines at the Bintulu LNG liquefaction plant in Sarawak, Malaysia. These massive pipelines carry water from the sea which is then used to evacuate heat produced in the LNG liquefaction process.
The 2007 AGIT Study Tour group members all agreed that the tour was a great opportunity for professional and personal development and recommend industry participants apply to participate in future study tours.
