The 949km pipeline from Wadeye at Port Keats to Gove will transport natural gas from Woodside’s offshore Blacktip field to Alcan’s expanded Gove Refinery at Nhulunbuy. It will pass between Katherine and Mataranka, to the south of Tindal.

The Northern Territory Government is confident the pipeline construction will provide substantial opportunity for NT businesses in areas such as civil earthworks, parts and equipment supply, fencing, transport and catering.

The pipeline will be constructed over about two years, with first gas to flow in January 2008.

Among the bidders for the major pipeline construction project is the Australian Pipeline Trust (APT)-ANZ Infrastructure Services consortium, in conjunction with a joint venture of Spie Capag Australia and AJ Lucas as its engineering, procurement and construction contractor.

APT managing director Jim McDonald described winning selection as preferred tenderer as “our most immediate major objective” after the trust recorded a 16% increase in net profit after tax and minorities to $25.7 million for the December 2004 half year.

McDonald said APT was proceeding with the fast-tracked program to de-bottleneck and expand the underground gas storage facility in the depleted Mondarra gas field at the northern end of the Parmelia gas pipeline in Western Australia.

The stored gas will be available to help meet Perth’s peak power generation demands over the next two years.

The trust is also talking to Queensland coal seam methane producers to develop additional gas treatment and compression facilities, with one contract already in place and McDonald confident of achieving at least one more.

Still to be finalised is APT’s interest in the Papua New Guinea-Australia gas pipeline project.

The trust has an option to take up at least 20% of the project, but McDonald said it would be keen to take a higher stake if invited by the AGL/Petronas consortiu