His comments follow an increase in growth over the last year of 31 per cent in APA’s Victorian assets due to revised tariff arrangements and modest increased gas throughput. New South Wales assets grew 25 per cent due to new contracted services on the pipeline system, revised tariffs and increasing demand for storage and peaking services on the Moomba – Sydney Gas Pipeline.
“Growth in gas pipelines is increasingly driven by the location of new gas-fired power generation facilities. Our east coast assets are well positioned to deliver new capacity to meet this increasing demand,” he said.
Mr McCormack said that the development of coal seam gas reserves in Queensland would also provide future potential pipeline projects, as well as strong population growth in South East Queensland, which will provide growth opportunities for APA’s gas distribution network for Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
Over the last year, Mr McCormack said that the Bonaparte Gas Pipeline was a major part of APA’s growth capital expenditure, at $A122 million. APA has also spent a further $A123 million including $A40 million on regulated assets.