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Gas pipeline reserved for big ticket projects
Edited by : AL CIRCLE
1 min read
A mining company building a billion-dollar gas pipeline to the Gove alumina refinery says it will be not be economically viable for remote Arnhem Land communities to tap into the supply.
Pacific Aluminium has released plans for the proposed route of its 600 kilometre pipeline from Katherine to Gove.
It passes near a number of remote communities.
Pacific Aluminium chief operations officer Duncan Hedditch says it is a matter for government, but he thinks the expense of the infrastructure needed to pipe gas to communities could only be met by big business.
"Our judgement is that it is likely to be uneconomic for small communities," he said.
"In future, with potentially more mineral exploration and development, it is certainly well within the realms of possibility that it could be used for those larger-scale purposes.
"(It is) a high-capacity, high-pressure pipeline, and to tap into it is reasonably expensive. "For smaller communities, it could be quite expensive to reduce the pressure and flow so that it is suitable for household use."
Pacific Aluminium has released plans for the proposed route of its 600 kilometre pipeline from Katherine to Gove.
It passes near a number of remote communities.
Pacific Aluminium chief operations officer Duncan Hedditch says it is a matter for government, but he thinks the expense of the infrastructure needed to pipe gas to communities could only be met by big business.
"Our judgement is that it is likely to be uneconomic for small communities," he said.
"In future, with potentially more mineral exploration and development, it is certainly well within the realms of possibility that it could be used for those larger-scale purposes.
"(It is) a high-capacity, high-pressure pipeline, and to tap into it is reasonably expensive. "For smaller communities, it could be quite expensive to reduce the pressure and flow so that it is suitable for household use."
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