Exmouth station lacks gas

A LACK of capacity in the Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline is clouding the fate of the gas-fired power station proposed for Exmouth.

Earlier this month Electricity Minister Eric Ripper announced that the Western Australian Government had entered into an 18-year power purchase contract with Exmouth Power Station Pty Ltd – a subsidiary of Burns and Roe Worley Limited.

The company will build a six megawatt power station, later to be expanded to 8.5MW, that will be fuelled by compressed natural gas drawn from the DBNGP twice a day for most of the year and trucked the 220 kilometres to Exmouth.

Gas deliveries will increase to three times a day during summer.

However, a spokesman for Epic Energy, the company that operates the DBNGP, said there was not sufficient capacity in the pipeline to allow for even that amount of gas.

“The pipeline is operating at full capacity now. Any new major project would require further expansion,” he said.

A spokesman for Western Power said the responsibility of sourcing fuel for the Exmouth power station would rest with Burns and Roe Worley.

“One of the arrangements of the power procurement agreement is that they have to get the gas and gas supply,” he said.

The spokesman said Burns and Roe Worley had six months to put the gas supply arrangements in place.

A Burns and Roe Worley spokesman said there were “certain things we need to do for the project to move forward”.

He would not reveal where the company plans to get the gas for the Exmoth station.

The Exmouth power station is the latest in the Government’s regional power procurement program.