The following is a recent media release received from APA regarding the status of damage to the gas line across the Burnett River.
APA crews have commenced work on the repair of the damaged gas pipeline across the Burnett River. The damaged section of the pipeline is below the waterline and is unable to be repaired. A permanent repair will now therefore require a complete replacement of the pipeline under the river. We anticipate that by Tuesday afternoon we will have a better understanding of the progress of the permanent repair and we will provide another update on Wednesday morning.
In addition to progressing the permanent repair, we have been investigating various temporary options that would potentially provide an interim supply of natural gas to a limited number of critical customers. The first of which was to insert the damaged pipeline with a smaller Poly Ethylene pipe. This has not been successful due to the significant damage of the existing pipeline.
We are now proceeding with the second option which involves the injection of natural gas into the network. In this option, LNG tankers will travel from Victoria to inject LNG into the existing gas supply network, thus potentially keeping gas supplies available to a limited number of critical customers until the permanent repair is completed. We expect to commence gas injection on Wednesday or Thursday this week.
We assure you of our best efforts to restore the supply of gas as soon as practicable and will continue to provide further updates as additional information comes to hand.
Date: 04-02-2013