Jemena plans new pipeline for Australia's Beetaloo Basin shale gas province
TBN•Jemena plans Beetaloo-to-east coast pipeline
DARWIN, Australia, Sept. 3 (Reuters) - Pipeline operator Jemena, owned by State Grid Corporation of China and Singapore Power, plans to build a new pipeline linking Australia's Beetaloo Basin shale gas province with the country's gas-hungry east coast market.
Chief Executive David Gillespie said on Thursday the company would seek approval for a roughly 400-kilometre pipeline connecting the Beetaloo Basin to Jemena's Northern Gas Pipeline.
The proposed pipeline would create "the shortest and fastest pathway for greater volumes of Beetaloo gas to enter the east coast market", he said, announcing the plan at the South East Asia Australia Offshore & Onshore Conference in Darwin.
Northern Gas Pipeline capacity and Beetaloo production plans
The Northern Gas Pipeline can transport about 90 terajoules (TJ) of gas a day to eastern Australia and could be expanded to around 130 TJ/day through additional compression, he added.
This week Tamboran Resources TBN.N began supplying 40 TJ/day of Beetaloo gas to Darwin, marking the basin's first commercial gas production.
While output remains modest, producers ultimately envisage LNG-scale developments in the Northern Territory and major gas-fired power supplies for large data centres.
Supply concerns on Australia's east coast, which is also home to three LNG export plants, have prompted successive governments to intervene in gas markets since 2017. In May, the Labor government announced plans to require future LNG export projects to reserve 20% of gas for domestic use.
Analysts have noted that the Northern Territory's relatively small gas market would struggle to absorb the full reserved volumes from large-scale LNG developments.
Gillespie said a Beetaloo industry producing around 1,000 TJ/day that sent substantial volumes through the proposed pipeline into the east coast market could help meet domestic reservation obligations.
