Western Slopes Pipeline
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The Western Slopes Pipeline is a cancelled natural gas pipeline.[1]
Location
The pipeline would run from the Narrabri Gas Project near the Pillaga Forest in New South Wales to the Moomba Sydney Pipeline in New South Wales, approximately 100km west of Condobolin.
Project details
- Operator: APA Western Slopes Pipeline[1]
- Owner: APA Western Slopes Pipeline
- Parent Company: APA Group[1]
- Capacity: 200 terajoules per day[1]
- Length: 461 kilometers[1]
- Diameter: 400 - 450 mm[2]
- Status: Cancelled[3][4]
- Start year: 2026[5]
- Cost: $450 million[6]
Background
The Western Slopes Pipeline would carry coal seam gas from the proposed Narrabri Gas Project (NGP) to the New South Wales gas transmission market through the Moomba Sydney Pipeline.[1] The pipeline would be owned by APA Group and operated by its subsidiary APA Western Slopes Pipeline. In February 2017 APA Group submitted a Preliminary Environmental Assessment (PEA) in support of an application to build the pipeline to the NSW Department of Planning and Environment.[7] Field studies along the proposed pipeline alignment began in August 2017. According to APA, "approximately half of the field studies to support the Project have been undertaken via voluntary landowner agreements, and the other half undertaken in accordance with the right granted by the ATS.”[8]
Facing heavy opposition to the NGP, APA announced in October 2018 that it would "defer submission of the EIS for the WSP until the assessment of the NGP EIS has further progressed."[9]
As of August 2021, development of the pipeline appeared to have ceased, and the project is considered shelved. However, this project was mentioned in the 2021 Australian National Gas Infrastructure Plan as an infrastructure option for unlocking Gunnedah Basin gas resources. This plan notes that if this pipeline were built, existing Western Slopes Pipeline and Victorian Transmission System pipelines nearby would require a capacity expansion of 150 terajoules per day.[10]
In early December 2022, Santos and APA Group announced that plans for the Western Slopes gas pipeline had been officially cancelled after Santos' purchase of the Hunter Gas Pipeline, which is planned to carry gas from the Narrabri coal seam gas project.[3][4]
Opposition
The Western Slopes Pipeline and the Narrabri Gas Project have been opposed by environmentalists, farmers, landowners, and residents of communities that would be impacted by the two projects. In November 2017 a standoff between farmers and surveyors for APA Group occurred near Coonamble, New South Wales, in which farmers discovered APA surveyors on private land and formed a human picket line to prevent them from leaving. The surveyors reportedly did not have identification or a copy of the court order allowing them to survey the land.[8] Also in November 2017, approximately 300 protesters formed a human sign that said "NO CSG" in a dry riverbed in the Pillaga Forest. “A project that would produce over 400,000 tonnes of toxic salty waste and provides no solution to its disposal is clearly not sustainable," said Margaret Fleck, a famer in Mullalley.[11] “Santos expect to take water out of the bottom of the bucket without affecting the top,” said Malcolm Donaldson, a farmer in Boggabri.[11] “We will continue to mobilise into next year as we simply cannot allow this disaster to unfold, risking our precious Great Artesian Basin and productive farmland.”
In December 2022, after the announcement of the project's official cancellation, the Lock the Gate Alliance anti-coal seam gas activist group "welcomed the move as a victory for environmental groups and farmers that had long opposed the project."[4]
Articles and resources
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Preliminary Environmental Assessment, APA Group, Jan. 3, 2017
- ↑ APA Group (January 2017). "Western Slopes Pipeline Fact Sheet" (PDF). APA Group. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ 3.0 3.1 Wilkinson, Rick (December 6, 2022). "APA Group cancels plan for Western Slopes gas pipeline". Oil and Gas Journal. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "APA Group scraps NSW gas pipeline plan for Narrabri". Australian Financial Review. 2022-12-05. Retrieved 2023-08-01.
- ↑ Offshore Technology (November 2, 2021). "Western Slopes, Australia". Offshore Technology. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Pipeline proposed to link gas to major supply network". Retrieved 2023-08-02.
- ↑ Western Slopes Pipeline, APA Group, accessed March 2018
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Pilliga pipeline proponents trapped on farm, police step in, The Land, Nov. 21, 2017
- ↑ Project Updates, APA, October 2018
- ↑ "Australia 2021 National Gas Infrastructure Plan". Australia Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources. Retrieved 2021-01-03.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ 11.0 11.1 Hundreds for human sign in protest of coal seam gas in Pilliga, The Northern Daily Leader, Nov. 14, 2017
