Sydney Morning Herald: Ian Macfarlane outlines ambitious plan for national gas network

Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane says he is determined to create a national gas market that could theoretically send gas all the way from the Browse Basin in Western Australia to Sydney, heading off a potential gas shortage in NSW and steep price rises from 2016.

In an exclusive interview with Fairfax Media, Mr Macfarlane said the missing link in creating a single national gas market could be the 1000-kilometre pipeline between Alice Springs and Moomba, South Australia, which would link up the Northern Territory to the east coast gas market and could cost about $1.3 billion, according to industry estimates.

Mr Macfarlane declared the project was "more than a vision" and said he was in talks with NT chief minister Adam Giles, the industry and NSW Energy Minister Anthony Roberts and that "at the moment we are trying to get enough pieces to fit".

The construction of the 900-kilometre pipeline from Browse Basin on the Kimberley coast to Darwin, which is already underway, would then effectively link the eastern Australian gas market to the gas-rich west. Gas from the Browse Basin is currently slated to be sold overseas but in the future it could also be sold into the domestic market. MORE