The Eastern Gas Pipeline (EGP) is a

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbon ...

pipeline. It is a key supply artery between the

Gippsland Basin Gippsland is a rural region that makes up the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains to the rainward (southern) side of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It covers ...

in Victoria and

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia. The EGP is currently operated by

Jemena SGSP (Australia) Assets Pty Ltd (SGSPAA), trading as Jemena, is an Australian company that owns, manages or operates energy infrastructure assets in the eastern states of Australia including Queensland and New South Wales, and gas pipelines and ...

. The EGP supplies more than half the gas consumed in New South Wales and supports consumers in Sydney and regional centres, including

Bairnsdale Bairnsdale () ( Ganai: ''Wy-yung'') is a city in East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia in a region traditionally owned by the Tatungalung clan of the Gunaikurnai people. The estimated population of Bairnsdale urban area was 15,411 at ...

Cooma Cooma is a town in the south of New South Wales, Australia. It is located south of the national capital, Canberra, via the Monaro Highway. It is also on the Snowy Mountains Highway, connecting Bega with the Riverina. At the , Cooma had a po ...

, Canberra,

Nowra Nowra is a city in the South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. It is located south-southwest of the state capital of Sydney (about as the crow flies). As of the 2021 census, Nowra has an estimated population of 22,584. Situated in th ...

, Bomaderry and

Wollongong Wollongong ( ), colloquially referred to as The Gong, is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near w ...

. Gas is fed to the EGP at

Longford Longford () is the county town of County Longford in Ireland. It has a population of 10,008 according to the 2016 census. It is the biggest town in the county and about one third of the county's population lives there. Longford lies at the meet ...

and Orbost, and by the VicHub interconnect facility. Capacity up to 2016 was 106 PJ per annum, and during 2016 was increased by 22 PJ per annum. Current capacity in 2018 was 350+ TJ per day.

Pipeline users

A major user of the pipeline is AGL, who have contracted capacity from the pipeline for AGL's customers in the Australian Capital Territory and New south Wales. Industrial EGP customers include

BlueScope BlueScope Steel Limited is an Australian flat product steel producer that was spun-off from BHP Billiton in 2002. History BlueScope was formed when BHP Billiton spun-off its steel assets on 15 July 2002 as BHP Steel. It was renamed BlueS ...

at Port Kembla. Power generation EGP customers include

Marubeni (, OSE: 8002, NSE: 8002) is a '' sōgō shōsha'' (general trading company) headquartered in Nihonbashi, Chuo, Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the largest ''sogo shosha'' and has leading market shares in cereal and paper pulp trading as well as a ...

’s power station at Smithfield,

EnergyAustralia EnergyAustralia (formerly TRUenergy) is an electricity generation, electricity and gas retailing private company in Australia, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based and listed China Light and Power ( CLP Group). EnergyAustralia als ...

’s power station at

Tallawarra Tallawarra Power Station is a combined cycle natural gas power station in the city of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. Owned and operated by EnergyAustralia, the station is the first of its type in New South Wales and produces electricity ...

, and Alinta Energy’s Bairnsdale power station.

Route and branches

The main pipeline is from Longford to Horsley Park.

History and construction

Survey work and land access negotiations were undertaken by LandPartners. The EGP project was initiated by

BHP Petroleum BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian Multinational corporation, multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Propri ...

and

West Coast Energy West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

. Design and construction were undertaken by Duke Energy. The initial design capacity was 65 PJ per annum, with an operating pressure of 14.9 MPa. The pipeline was commissioned in 2000 and owned and operated by

Duke Energy Duke Energy Corporation is an American electric power and natural gas holding company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. Overview Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Duke Energy owns 58,200 watt, megawatts of base-load and peak generati ...

. Estimated cost was AUD450M. API 5L X70 and X65 grade steel pipe with a fusion-bonded epoxy (FBE) coating was used. 90 kT of pipe was used for the pipeline. 27.7 kT of this was processed by

OneSteel Arrium was an Australian mining and materials company, employing nearly 10,000 workers, that went into voluntary administration in 2016 with debts of more than $2 billion. In 2017 it was acquired by British-owned Liberty House Group. His ...

Oil and Gas from

PS5200 pipesteel. Ownership passed to

Alinta Alinta was an Australian energy infrastructure company. It has grown from a small, Western Australia-based gas distributor and retailer to the largest energy infrastructure company in Australia. It was bought in 2007 by a consortium including ...

in April 2004 when Alinta purchased Duke Energy's assets in Australia and New Zealand.

took ownership and control in 2007. In 2008 a midline compressor was commissioned at Mila, near Bombala, New South Wales, increasing capacity by 15%. Engineering constraints included snow zone operating conditions. Capacity was then 98 PJ per annum. Local Rural Fire Service personnel are given response training by Jemena. The Wilton lateral was commissioned in 2016. Planning for a compressor upgrade commenced in 2013. In 2016 capacity was increased by 20%, 22 PJ per year, by the addition of two new midline compressor stations, at

Michelago Michelago is a village in the Monaro region of New South Wales, Australia. The village is in the Snowy Monaro Regional Council local government area, south of Canberra on the Monaro Highway. It was founded in the 1820s, on the main route from ...

, and at Orbost.

Pipeline users

Route and branches

History and construction

References

External links

Further reading