A gas leak lead to the fire in the Liquids Recovery Plant section of the facility although no casualties or injuries have been reported.
The plant was subsequently shut down in response to the incident with no gas supplies being delivered into pipeline networks.
Large users of industrial gas in NSW and South Australia have been asked to cut back consumption to ensure domestic supplies.
The pipeline holds four days of gas consumption. If supplies are not resumed quickly, disruptions to NSW users could be averted by drawing gas from other sources.
Senior Santos management has flown to Moomba and is investigating the cause of the incident and assessing the extent of the damage.
At this stage the company says it is not possible to assess the time that it will take before full production is restored. Santos is examining alternative means of processing raw gas, supply of gas from storage and exporting oil.
The plant has somewhat of a checkered past after being shut down last January when its gas flare system was damaged during planned maintenance. It took two days to bring it back on line. The following month supplies were curtailed for emergency work on piping.
In June 2001 an explosion and fire in the liquids pumping station killed one worker and injured three.
The interests of the South Australian Cooper Basin Producers are Santos (Operator) 59.75%, Delhi (ExxonMobil) 20.21%, Origin Energy 13.19%, Novus Australia Resources 4.75% and Basin Oil (OMV) 2.10%.
