Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline
Encyclopedia
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
pipeline in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. It is 660mm in diameter, which also makes it one of Australia's largest in terms of transmission capacity. At the time of its commissioning in 1984, it was one of the longest gas pipelines in the world.
The pipeline runs from a point near Withnell Bay, on the Burrup Peninsula near Dampier
Dampier
Dampier may refer to:* Dampier, Western Australia* Division of Dampier, an Australian Electoral Division in Western Australia from 1913 to 1922* Dampier , English cricketer playing 1765-1787...
, to Bunbury in the south-west of the State. It carries natural gas, most of which enters the pipeline at the domestic gas plant associated with the North West Shelf Venture
North West Shelf Venture
The North West Shelf Venture, situated in the north-west of Western Australia, is Australia's largest resource development project. It involves the extraction of petroleum at offshore production platforms, onshore processing and export of liquefied natural gas, and production of natural gas for...
project. The other main inlet point is approximately 135 km south of Dampier, where one of the sales gas pipelines from Varanus Island
Varanus Island
Varanus Island is the largest of the Lowendal Islands, an archipelago off the north west coast of Western Australia, near Karratha in the Pilbara region...
connects with the DBNGP. In June 2008, following a pipeline rupture and explosion at the Varanus Island facility, the DBNGP carried additional volumes of gas from the North West Shelf plant to the south-west of the state, for a period of several months. See: 2008 Western Australian gas crisis
2008 Western Australian gas crisis
The Western Australian gas crisis was a major disruption to natural gas supply in Western Australia, caused by the rupture of a corroded pipeline and subsequent explosion at a processing plant on Varanus Island, off the state's north west coast on 3 June 2008...
As a single trunkline it is 1530 km long,http://www.dmp.wa.gov.au/documents/PExpGuide_2007.pdf extending from the Burrup Peninsula in the Pilbara region, to Bunbury in the south west
Southwest, Western Australia
The Southwest is a loosely defined area in the southwest corner of Western Australia. Various regionalisations have provided formal definitions of the area, but these do not coincide.* For the drainage division, see Southwest corner of Western Australia...
of Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
. It supplies gas to industrial, commercial and residential customers in Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
and major regional centres along the pipeline route. It is covered by Western Australian pipeline license PL-40. A number of lateral pipelines are connected to this pipeline, most of which are covered by separate licenses, although PL-40 itself covers the main trunkline and some laterals totalling a length of 1789 km.
History
The idea of a pipeline to transport gas from the North West Shelf to the south-west of Western Australia had its origins in 1975, following the discovery of large offshore reserves by WAPETWAPET
West Australian Petroleum Pty Ltd was a pioneer oil and gas exploration and processing company in Western Australia. Formed in March 1952 as a joint venture between Caltex and Ampol, the company discovered Australia's first flowing oil in November the following year, at Rough Range on the North...
and woodside Petroleum
Woodside Petroleum
Woodside Petroleum Limited is an Australian petroleum exploration and production company. It is a public company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and has its headquarters in Perth, Western Australia.-History:...
. Around this time, the State Energy Commission of WA reviewed the state's future gas requirements in conjunction with the partners in the North West Shelf consortium. The developers of the North West Shelf were in the preliminary stages of planning a system of production facilities based on the Rankin and Goodwyn fields (located about 130 km off the coast of Dampier), linked to an LNG processing plant and a domestic gas plant situated at Withnell Bay. As the state government had access to more attractive interest rates than the commercial venturers, the state agreed to fund and build (through SECWA) a 1540 km gas pipeline to transport the output from the domestic gas plant. In addition, SECWA entered into long term (20 year) 'take-or-pay' contracts with the North West Shelf partners, in which SECWA agreed to pay for fixed volumes of gas which exceeded the market demand for gas in the south west.
Engineering design commenced in 1979. and the pipeline was constructed between 1983 and 1984,, with the extension south to Bunbury
Bunbury, Western Australia
The port city of Bunbury is the third largest city in Western Australia after the State Capital Perth and Mandurah. It is situated south of Perth's central business district...
commissioned in 1985 . Construction involved the welding of 127,000 sections of 12 metre pipe. Gas first flowed into the pipe on 16 August 1984. Following the disaggregation of SECWA in 1995, the pipeline came under the ownership and control of the government's gas utility, AlintaGas. As part of a government policy of privatisation, Alinta sold the pipeline in 1998 to Epic Energy, a consortium of two U.S. pipeline companies (along with three Australian institutional shareholders) at a price of A$2.407 billion.
Epic Energy owned and operated the pipeline for six years, eventually selling the pipeline in October 2004 to Dampier Bunbury Pipeline (DBP) Ltd, which is the trading name of the DBNGP group of companies. DBP has three institutional shareholders: D.U.E.T. (Diversified Utilities and Energy Trusts)(60%), Alcoa
Alcoa
Alcoa Inc. is the world's third largest producer of aluminum, behind Rio Tinto Alcan and Rusal. From its operational headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Alcoa conducts operations in 31 countries...
(20%) and Alinta
Alinta
Alinta is 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 Singapore Power and various now defunct Babcock & Brown...
(20%). An executive team is responsible to the owners for the performance of the business, including corporate, regulatory, commercial and strategic functions.
Throughput
Pipeline Corridor
The pipeline's corridor runs near and crosses the North West Coastal HighwayNorth West Coastal Highway
North West Coastal Highway in Western Australia is a generally north-south Western Australian highway which links the fishing town of Geraldton with the iron ore port of Port Hedland. It is long, and constructed as a sealed 2-lane single carriageway with overtaking lanes in some parts. It was...
to near the Yannrie river where it passes inland, east of the Kennedy Range National Park
Kennedy Range National Park
Kennedy Range National Park is a national park in Gascoyne region of Western Australia , approximately north of Perth and about east of Carnarvon....
crossing the Murchison River near Mulla Mulla flat, moving south to cross the Midlands road east of Dongara.
See also
- List of natural gas pipelines in Western Australia
- Varanus IslandVaranus IslandVaranus Island is the largest of the Lowendal Islands, an archipelago off the north west coast of Western Australia, near Karratha in the Pilbara region...
- Petroleum industry in Western Australia