Jemena, an Australian energy infrastructure company, reported the completion of the construction of its 622km long Northern Gas Pipeline project between Tennant Creek in Northern Territory (NT) and Mount Isa in Queensland.

Construction of the AUD800 million ($603 million) inter-state gas transmission pipeline began in July 2017.

The Northern Gas Pipeline project has been undertaken with an objective to address the east-coast gas supply crisis by transporting gas drawn from the NT Gas fields to the east coast gas market in Australia.

McConnell Dowell was given the responsibility to construct 481km of the Australian gas pipeline project with most of the stretch in NT and a small portion in Queensland. The other 141km portion of the Northern Gas Pipeline project was laid by Spiecapag Australia in Queensland.

Overall, the Australian gas pipeline project is made up of around 34,000 lengths of pipe that have been welded, lowered in and completely buried in the trench.

Jemena will now work towards the commissioning of the Northern Gas Pipeline, which has been designed to supply 90TJs of gas a day. Prior to that, Jemena will conduct rigorous inspections on the Northern Gas Pipeline and also on the two associated compressor stations – Mount Isa Compressor Station and Phillip Creek Compressor Station. The first gas from the Northern Gas Pipeline project is scheduled to be transported later this year.

The Australian gas pipeline is supported by an offtake of 70% of its available capacity in year one. Last month, Jemena agreed to supply at least 32TJs of gas per day to Incitec Pivot’s Gibson Island facility.

Previously, Jemena had also signed an agreement with Northern Territory’s Power & Water to provide 31TJs of gas to Incitec Pivot’s Phosphate Hill facility for a duration of 10 years.

Antoon Boey – Executive General Manager of Corporate Development, Jemena, commenting on the Northern Gas Pipeline project (NGP project), said: “When Jemena was awarded the contract to develop and construct the NGP in 2015 we committed to constructing the pipeline on time, safely, providing training and employment opportunities for people from the communities surrounding the pipeline, and introducing competition into the east-coast gas market.

“Almost 800 jobs have been created as part of the pipeline’s planning and construction phase – around 700 of which have been awarded to people from local communities along the pipeline route. Plus we’ve seen $120 million spent with businesses in the Northern Territory and Queensland.”

Commenting further on the Northern Gas Pipeline project, Antoon Boey said: “The sheer scale of this project is enormous – the largest current gas pipeline project in Australia. This milestone is due to the fantastic effort of those working in remote, hot and often dusty conditions.”

  Antoon Boey, Australia, Jemena, Northern Gas Pipeline, Northern Territory, Queensland