TRANSFIELD SERVICES PREFERRED BIDDER FOR PIPELINE, page-11

Just to put you in the picture Seajay - so that you don't wrongly tag someone a dimwit again.

Firstly,what OSH were hoping for..............


Gas pipeline project in high gear to sign up customers.

BRISBANE: The Papua New Guinea to Queensland gas pipeline project is evolving into a force in its third reincarnation, actively seeking customers in the race to supply eastern Australia with high volume gas.
"The giant is moving again," Oil Search Ltd managing director Peter Botten said today.
His company recently gained approval to merge with the PNG government-backed Orogen Minerals NL, to give it a 37 per cent stake in the long-delayed project.
Engineers will soon complete their work on the a$6.8 billion pipeline project ahead of site work preparation later this year.
After two attempts to get off the ground over the last few years, the PNG gas project's marketing team are now working in overdrive to sign up customers, and are hopeful of winning the Townsville base-load gas-fired power station.
Dubbed the `Townsville Decision', the outcome on who will build the facility, who will run it and who will supply it is expected within three months.
A short list of three consortiums was announced by the Queensland government last week - AGL/Stanwell using PNG gas, Origin Energy using local coal seam methane and the government-owned trading company Enertrade, also in the running as a reseller.
The Townsville power station is part of Queensland Premier Peter Beattie's Cleaner Energy Strategy to harness more environmentally friendly energy from gas and renewables.
Mr Botten said there was a clear shortfall of gas from 2006 when existing contracts expire and there was increased growth in demand.
"We are out there testing again in our third reincarnation," Mr Botten told a Queensland gas and electricity conference.
"We are very serious, we are in the best situation we have ever been and the giant is moving."
Mr Botten said the Townsville Decision provided an important customer base for the PNG project.
"We are the logical supplier of volume gas into Townsville to meet the demand of a major power station building in that area. It is an important market for us, all of our customers are important to us," he said.
"Two years ago we saw Queensland as the only domain for our project ... in reasonably hot competition."
But he said a recent deal with AGL opened up a strategic market through the centre of Australia and straight into the Sydney market.
"Townsville is important to us, whether or not it is critical will depend on the marketing efforts of our team."
AGL has signed up as the project's first customer, with a 20-year conditional deal to buy up to 50 petajoules of gas a year from mid-2006.
Project operator Exxon Mobil Corp also recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the PNG government, setting out the terms and conditions for developing and producing more than six trillion cubic feet of natural gas resources from the southern highlands of PNG.
Allgas Ltd chief executive officer Tom Bloxsom said yesterday that natural gas had the potential to be a future star in Australian energy markets, particularly in Queensland.
Gas equates to 18 per cent of the Australian primary energy market but is expected to rise to 24 per cent by 2019/20.
Mr Bloxsom said the Queensland was currently an immature market ripe for invigoration through opportunities for alternative suppliers to provide greater competition and competitive prices.
Average gas consumption per residential customer in Queensland is currently 13 gigajoules per annum, compared to 21 gigajoules per annum in NSW, 24 gigajoules in SA and 58 in Victoria.
PNG gas pipeline partners Exxon Mobil, Oil Search, ChevronTexaco, Japan PNG Petroleum and MRDC, a PNG company representing landowner interests, are building the longest pipeline of its kind in the southern hemisphere.


and secondly what has eventuated..............


TRANSFIELD SERVICES LIMITED 2002-06-04 ASX-SIGNAL-G

HOMEX - Sydney

+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Premier Peter Beattie today announced Enertrade as preferred
proponent on the $500 million power infrastructure package for north
and central Queensland, which includes a new pipeline sourcing coal
seam methane from the Bowen Basin as well as the utilisation of
Transfield Services existing Townsville Power Station.

The utilisation of Transfield Services' Townsville Power involves the
conversion and expansion of the existing peak-load jet-fuel-fired
plant, into a gas-fired base-load plant.

CEO of Transfield Services Mr Peter Watson, said that one of the
reasons for the selection of the Transfield Services as part of the
Enertrade proposal was the high degree of certainty the conversion of
an existing facility gives to the Government's process.

"Our proposal was chosen from a field of eighteen bids and clearly
our ability to provide reliability of supply within set timeframes
and best value for money were key determining factors in the
Government's decision," Mr Watson said.

"The Townsville power station has proved to be a reliable peak-load
power station, meeting all requests for emergency power, and it is
now time for the station to fulfil its potential as a base-load power
station in the Townsville area.

"This project will leverages off our strengths in the power industry
and we are very excited about the prospect of working with Government
and Enertrade in what will be one of Queensland's largest
infrastructure projects.

"The expansion will increase the size of the power station from 160
megawatts to 220 megawatts. Development will be undertaken under a
fixed-price, fixed-time, turnkey contract. Enertrade will supply gas
and will purchase all electricity produced under long-term contract,"
he said.

The expansion will require an equity contribution from Transfield
Services but will be substantially financed by increasing the
existing non-recourse project finance facility.

Media Contact:
Maryanne Graham
MANAGER PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND INVESTOR RELATIONS
Transfield Services
0407 252 230



Now you know why OSH has gone down - it may have been oversold though.