“This acquisition gives us the ability to put our hands up and say here we are, we are a bigger business,” APT managing director Mick McCormack said, with a view to making his company’s presence clearly known to those involved in building a gas pipeline from Papua New Guinea to Australia. “We do definitely want to see Papua New Guinea gas come into South East Australian markets, and we want to play a role,” he said. “We’ve been in discussions with AGL and Petronas over the years, and I guess I look forward with interest just to see where the Papua New Guinea pipeline project is currently.”
Mr McCormack noted that the project, which is operated by ExxonMobil, has had its share of setbacks. Project participant Oil Search was forced to issue a statement in September saying that the project is still viable after AGL, part-owner of the Australian section of the pipeline, said it was scaling-back its involvement.
“The size of that role we’ll consider at the time… But we certainly want to be a key player there,” Mr McCormack confirmed.
APT runs 8,000km of transmission pipeline in Australia, to which GasNet will add over 2,000km, while Allgas will add 2,300km in distribution mains in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Northern NSW, Toowoomba, and Oakey. Allgas’ assets include the regulated distribution network, the unregulated Moura pipeline, and rights relating to the proposed Gatton – Gympie pipeline.