APA outlines 2015-16 spending plans

OREANDA-NEWS. August 26, 2015. Australian pipeline operator APA plans to spend between A\\$300mn (\\$216mn) and A\\$400mn for the 2015-16 fiscal year ending 30 June on new and existing capacity, having spent A\\$343mn during 2014-15 mostly on its east Australia infrastructure.

APA is currently upgrading the Roma-Brisbane pipeline and the Moomba-Sydney pipeline in east Australia to have bi-directional capability, as well as expanding transmission and compression capacity to transport gas from Victoria to New South Wales (NSW). It is also extending the Eastern Goldfields pipeline in Western Australia.

The company is also on the short list for a proposed pipeline connecting gas fields in the Northern Territory to consumers in east Australia.

APA in June completed the \\$4.6bn purchase of the 540km Wallumbilla-Gladstone pipeline from UK energy firm BG for \\$4.6bn. The pipeline connects BG's coal-bed methane gas fields in the Surat basin in southwest Queensland with its two-train 8.5mn t/yr Queensland Curtis LNG (QCLNG) venture that started shipments in December last year. The two QCLNG trains are part of six LNG liquefaction trains in Queensland with a total capacity of 25.3mn t/yr that are scheduled to be operational by the second half of 2016.

APA posted a 2.1pc increase in 2014-15 profit from a year earlier of A\\$203.9mn. Its revenues rose by 12.8pc to A\\$1.12bn for the same period.