A $300MILLION high-pressure coal seam gas pipeline, planned to run through the Singleton shire, has reignited moves for another baseload power station near the town.
The 286 kilometre pipeline, is set to stretch from central western New South Wales gas fields, near Narrabri, to a proposed $1.5billion liquefied natural gas export terminal on Newcastle’s Kooragang Island.
While representatives of the company behind the project, Easter Star Gas, say they are talking to several “third parties” about gas sales they will not be drawn on exactly who.
The electricity corporation Macquarie Generation runs the coal-fired power stations Bayswater and Liddell, between Muswellbrook and Singleton, and also holds state government “concept approval” for a new “coal or gas” powered Bayswater B.
When asked about the situation, Eastern Star’s stakeholder relations general manager Peter Fox would only say: “Macquarie Generation has one of the most promising opportunities for gas-fired power generation in New South Wales and Eastern Star is geographically well placed if the project was to proceed.”
Mr Fox said the Eastern Star pipeline and gas export terminal proposal gained “major project” status with the state government in September last year and he was hopeful of approval early next year.
The project also appears to have solid financial backing as Eastern Star is the subject of a takeover bid by one of Australia’s leading gas producers, Santos.
Eastern Star directors favour the takeover and have recommended that shareholders ratify the deal at a special meeting in October.
Extensive environmental studies are well underway and are expected to be lodged with the government within three months.
Mr Fox said Eastern Star representatives have done a lot of consultative work on a one-to-one basis with landholders to discuss property access for pipeline route survey work.
And now public information meetings are being organised.
The Singleton shire meeting will be held in the Elderslie Hall on Tuesday August 30, between 3pm and 7pm.
Other meetings are expected to be held soon at Merriwa, Denman, Morpeth and Beresfield.
The sessions will be informal, allowing people to ask questions and view displays and fact sheets dealing with topics including the continuation of farming activities above the buried pipeline and how compensation will be paid for disruption during the construction phase.
The pipeline would start near Coolah and pass Cassilis to the south, turn south-east near Merriwa and pass to the east of the Goulburn River National Park before crossing the Hunter River 1.5km east of Denman.
It would continue south of Lake Liddell, near Bayswater and Liddell power stations, before travelling through Dyrring, Mitchells Flat, Elderslie and Stanhope on its way to Maitland Vale, Largs, Morpeth, Woodberry, Tarro and Hexham to Kooragang. It will be built by a workforce of up to 150 people.
Mr Fox said the 508mm diameter line is expected to carry about 100 petajoules of gas a year.
This is about two thirds of the state’s entire current gas demand.
One petajoule is enough energy to supply more than 30,000 homes for all their cooking, heating and hot water needs for a year, he said.
The proposed liquefied natural gas terminal at Kooragang will essentially be a big freezer.
It will chill incoming gas into a liquid at about minus 162 degrees Celsius.
This will compress its energy to about one six hundredth of its volume as a gas.
Most of the liquefied gas is expected to be exported to the Asia-Pacific region for residential, industrial and power generation uses.
Mr Fox said: “This pipeline will play a major role in the provision of an efficient energy supply for electricity generation, industrial use and domestic supply in NSW as well as supporting a strong, new export opportunity for NSW to Asian markets.
“Gas is widely recognized as the best fuel for power generation as we transition to a lower carbon economy.”
Email a friend