Amadeus to Moomba Gas Pipeline

Part of the Global Gas Infrastructure Tracker, a Global Energy Monitor project.

Download full dataset

Report an error

Related categories:

Global Gas Infrastructure Tracker Global Oil Infrastructure Tracker Gas and Hydrogen Pipelines LNG Terminals Oil and NGL Pipelines

The Amadeus to Moomba Gas Pipeline is a shelved natural gas pipeline in Australia.

Location

The pipeline runs from the Amadeus Basin in the south of the Northern Territory to Moomba, South Australia.

Loading map...

{"type":"ROADMAP","minzoom":false,"maxzoom":false,"types":["ROADMAP","SATELLITE","HYBRID","TERRAIN"],"mappingservice":"googlemaps3","width":"400px","height":"300px","centre":{"text":"","title":"","link":"","lat":-26,"lon":136,"icon":""},"title":"","label":"","icon":"","lines":[{"text":"","title":"","link":"","strokeColor":"#FF0000","strokeOpacity":"1","strokeWeight":"2","pos":[{"lat":-23.83271,"lon":132.242532},{"lat":-28.11552,"lon":140.205795}]}],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"copycoords":false,"static":false,"visitedicon":"","wmsoverlay":false,"zoom":4,"layers":[],"controls":["pan","zoom","type","scale","streetview","rotate"],"zoomstyle":"DEFAULT","typestyle":"DEFAULT","autoinfowindows":false,"resizable":false,"kmlrezoom":false,"poi":true,"cluster":false,"clustergridsize":60,"clustermaxzoom":20,"clusterzoomonclick":true,"clusteraveragecenter":true,"clusterminsize":2,"imageoverlays":[],"kml":[],"gkml":[],"searchmarkers":"","fullscreen":false,"scrollwheelzoom":false,"locations":[]}

Project details

• Operator: Australian Gas Infrastructure Group
• Owner: Central Petroleum (33.33%), Macquarie (33.33%), Australian Gas Infrastructure Group (33.33%)
• Parent company: Central Petroleum, Macquarie, CK Group
• Capacity: 117.53 million cubic feet per day / 124 terajoules per day
• Length: 950 kilometers
• Diameter: 16 inches (406 mm)
• Cost: Estimated minimum of AUS$1.2 billion (US$870 million)
• Status: Shelved
• Start year: 2024

Background

In August 2020, Central Petroleum signed a memorandum of understanding with Australian Gas Infrastructure Group and Macquarie Mereenie to move towards a final investment decision on the pipeline in the second half of 2021. Construction would begin in 2022 and the pipeline would be commissioned in 2024. The pipeline would be less than half the distance of the current 2,250-km network, through which gas is piped from the Amadeus Basin to Moomba.

According to Central Petroleum's chief executive Leon Devaney, the promoters are eyeing federal government financing support for the AUS$1.2 billion project via the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility.

In a report published in late December 2022, Leon Devaney, Central Petroleum's Managing Director and CEO stated that: "Similarly, we have allowed our arrangements to support the proposed Amadeus to Moomba gas pipeline to lapse and will revisit these once we better assess changes to the regulatory regimes and results become available from the subsalt exploration program." Based on this claim, the pipeline project is considered to be shelved as of 2023.

Australian Gas Pipeline Network per Empire Energy. Shows existing pipelines and the Amadeus to Moomba proposed pipeline in purple.

Opposition

Arid Lands Environment Centre (ALEC) opposes the project, noting that the pipeline could transport as much as 90% fracked gas, according to a 2017 feasibility study commissioned by the Australian government. The group also notes the pipeline would cross remote ecologically and culturally sensitive regions and that "residents and community groups have repeatedly spoken out against the contamination of water, the destruction of land and the health risks posed by hydraulic fracking."