KLEENHEAT Gas has formed an alliance with Great Southern Energy to bring natural gas to the Snowy Mountains gateway town of Cooma.
Kleenheat, the national gas supply subsidiary of Perth-based Wesfarmers Ltd, will retail the gas while Great Southern Energy will build, own and operate the underground gas reticulation system.
Work on the reticulation system has already commenced and it is anticipated natural gas will be available to customers by October 2000.
Natural gas supplies will be sourced from the Duke Energy Pipeline that pipes gas from Westernport in Victoria to Wollongong.
Meanwhile, Kleenheat will supply Cooma with simulated natural gas, a combination of air and propane that burns similarly to natural gas.
An SNG plant will be built next to the proposed natural gas pipeline gate station and is expected to be in operation by October 1999. Cooma will pay for SNG services at prices similar to those paid for natural gas in other rural NSW towns.
The SNG plant will provide back-up once natural gas from the Duke Energy Eastern Austra-lian pipeline is adopted as the primary source.
