I would like to know what posters think of this proposition. I...

I would like to know what posters think of this proposition.

I suspect that it was not so much a case of Jemena winning a competitive bid but rather a case of the NT government wanting a means by which to get rid of the surplus 11 PJ (I think that is the correct figure) that it must take or pay from ENI under the 2009 Blacktip supply contract.

My point is that the "winner" was always going to be the proponent who postulated a tenant Creek Mount Isa pipe.

My guess is that the NT government had targeted sales of its surplus gas for consumption at Phosphate Hill by IPL as the most effective way to achieve a profitable shedding of the surplus gas.

Had the NT government targeted a market further south in the process of analysis perhaps hypothetically via a proposed APA pipeline from Alice Springs to Moomba and then beyond via established pipelines, it would need to pump that surplus gas a lot further than Mount Isa.

The extra transit distance would necessarily mean a less profitable disposal of the surplus gas. Moreover it is conceivable that IPL was "Johnny on the spot" whereas there was no organised bulk purchaser for the surplus gas that could be rapidly identified in the East Coast.

The foregoing factors indicate to me that these events have not been so much a case of the NT government "awarding" any great privilege to Jemena but rather simply a case of the NT government using that company as a means to an end – shedding the surplus gas while defraying the cost thereof.