In giving the green light to the $1.8 billion expansion of its Gove refinery, Canadian alumina producer Alcan has cleared the way for a further $1 billion investment in the Northern Territory and Western Australia to move forward.
In giving the green light to the $1.8 billion expansion of its Gove refinery, Canadian alumina producer Alcan has cleared the way for a further $1 billion investment in the Northern Territory and Western Australia to move forward.
The additional investment includes a likely $450 million Woodside/ENI joint venture at the Blacktip gasfield, north of WA’s most northern port of Wyndham in the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf, and a further $550 million 1,000 kilometre onshore Trans-Territory gas pipeline across Arnhem Land.
Should Blacktip go ahead, Woodside plans to create a ‘gas hub’ to supply other customers in the Northern Territory, with Alcan as its foundation customer.
A final investment decision on the Blacktip project by Woodside is not expected until the second quarter of 2005.
The Blacktip joint venture has agreed to supply Gove with 40 petajoules of gas for 20 years, commencing in the fourth quarter 2007 should the project go ahead.
Woodside’s Darwin manager Mike Lane said Alcan’s decision to go ahead is a very important one for the Blacktip joint venture.
“We hope that the Blacktip go-ahead will form the hub of a gas aggregation strategy that will enable us to provide gas to other customers in the Northern Territory,” he said.
“The Alcan expansion is very important for the Territory.
“It will be the first gas from an offshore field coming into the Northern Territory for a domestic customer – which Alcan is.”
The offshore Blacktip gas field will be developed with a remotely operated well head platform. Gas will be piped to an onshore processing facility near Wadeye via a 110 kilometre sub-sea pipeline.
Mr Lane said the construction phase of the Blacktip onshore processing plant would create between 150 and 180 jobs during the construction phase.
Once processed, the gas will be transported from Wadeye to Gove via the 1,000 kilometre Trans Territory Pipeline for power generation at Alcan’s alumina refinery.
The proposed TTP is a joint project between the Blacktip Joint Venture (Woodside/ENI) and Alcan South Pacific Pty Ltd. Alcan Gove Pty Ltd is the proponent.
NT Chief Minister Clare Martin said the Alcan expansion was “the biggest investment decision ever undertaken in Territory history – bigger than the Alice Springs to Darwin railway and the Wickham Point LNG plant.”
“This project will employ 1,500 to 1,700 people directly in the construction phase during its peak and will support many more indirectly in the Territory’s supply and service industries.”
The Alcan project is also expected to create 120 permanent jobs and will commence construction before the end of 2004.
Ms Martin said that once completed, the project would contribute in lifting alumina exports from $580 million per year to $980 million.
Alcan’s Gove project is expected to increase the refinery’s capacity from about 2.1 million tonnes per year to approximately 3.8 million tonnes – lifting Alcan’s overall alumina capacity by 30 per cent
The expansion is also expected to improve operating efficiency and environmental performance at the plant.
The Gove expansion project will allow Alcan to further supply surging Chinese demand for alumina and aluminium metal.
Alcan is also a joint venture partner in the Queensland Gladstone alumina refinery with a 41.4% holding.
