South Australia's Moomba Adelaide Pipeline System Changes Hands Again

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Perth, Australia)--APA Group (ASX:APA) (Sydney, Australia) has entered into an agreement for the sale of the Moomba Adelaide Pipeline System (MAPS), only six months after buying it.

At 736 miles (1,185 kilometers), the MAPS is one of Australia's longest and oldest pipelines. It was developed by a government-owned utility, The Pipelines Authority of South Australia, to deliver gas from the Cooper Basin to power generators and domestic and industrial customers in Adelaide.

Since then, the capacity of the pipeline has increased substantially through the addition of compression along the length of the pipeline. At maximum compression, the capacity of the pipeline is about 418 Terajoules per day (TJ/d); however, a number of the compressor stations have been mothballed due to reduced demand following the commissioning of the SEAGas Pipeline, which supplies Adelaide with gas from Victoria, in January 2004. Current capacity of the system is approximately 250 TJ/d.

The MAPS includes seven compressor stations. In order from north to south, they are located at Moomba, Murnpeowie, Arkaroola, Blinman, Olary, Peterborough and Leighton. Compressor stations nos. 5 and 7, Olary and Leighton, have been mothballed and are no longer operational, but still house the required turbines and compressors should they need to be reinstated. The compressor stations comprise a mixture of Solar Taurus, Solar Centaur and Rolls-Royce 501 turbines, with Solar or Dresser Rand compressors. As the compressor stations are all in very remote desert locations, all are equipped with either Caterpillar or Waukesha engines that generate power for the operation of the station.

The sale of the pipeline to QIC Global Infrastructure (Brisbane, Australia) for $412.7 million (AU$400.6 million) is expected to be finalised by the end of April 2013, subject to approval by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC). APA Group acquired the MAPS as part of its acquisition of Hastings Diversified Utility Fund in December 2012. Approval of that transaction by the ACCC included the condition that APA group sell the MAPS within a designated time period.

APA Group is still the largest owner and operator of long-distance transmission pipelines in Australia. Some of the pipelines it owns include the Pilbara Energy Pipeline, Goldfields Gas Pipeline and Midwest Pipeline in Western Australia; the Amadeus Gas Pipeline in the Northern Territory; the Carpentaria Gas Pipeline, the North Queensland Gas Pipeline, the South West Queensland Pipeline (SWQP) and Roma Brisbane Gas Pipeline in Queensland; the Moomba Sydney Gas Pipeline, the Central West Pipeline and the Central Ranges Pipeline in New South Wales; and the SEAGas Pipeline in western Victoria.

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