Alinta had acknowledged its interest in buying a stake in the pipeline should it be placed into receivership by the Epic Energy's banks following the upcoming gas transport tariff announcement.

However, the ACCC said that a conflict of interest would arise due to Alinta's role as one of the state's largest gas suppliers. The theory is that the operating arm of Alinta could give preference to the gas supplying arm ahead of other suppliers.

Alinta will also have to convince the WA government, which is currently dissecting Western Power into three separate entities.

The company was looking at the pipeline as an alternate revenue source as part of its growth strategy. The revenue would also go a long way to offsetting the potential loss of its LPG earnings with Wesfarmers from 2005.