The US controlled company confirmed it had appointed advisers to sell its $2.6 billion of gas pipelines, which will be sold as two assets, with the board agreeing to begin the sales process next week

Brokerage firm UBS will handle the sale of the 1,530km long DBNGP in Western Australia, while corporate adviser Carnegie Wiley & Co (CWC) will sell the rest.

Speculation over the sale has been rife since the WA Office of Gas Access Regulation announced the results of its tariff review for the DBNGP. The revised levels were considered inadequate for Epic to sustain its creditors and have since been at the heart of a bitter debate between the two organisations.

The decision to sell follows a six month extension from 28 bank lenders that are owed $1.85 billion for the main WA pipeline, with the debt now payable on March 16 next year.

The banks would now be viewing the sale of the key asset as the best way to obtain a full repayment of the debt as quickly as possible.

The sales marks another failure by US investors in the Australian market after energy giant Aquila was forced to sell off its multi billion dollar power assets in the country's east to a joint venture between AMP Henderson and Alinta.

Alinta has now emerged as one of the leading contenders for a stake in the DBNGP after announcing last month that it had entered discussions with Wesfarmers and Alcoa World Alumina Australia, also major shippers on the DBNGP taking up to 70% of total current capacity, about their options with the pipeline.

Previous discussions about Alinta entering the pipeline market drew the attention of the ACCC over concerns that such a move would be anti-competitive.

However, with the pipeline already running at capacity, Alinta, Wesfarmers and Alcoa have a strong financial interest in any possible expansion before Western Power or any interstate entity moves into the expanding WA gas market.