The Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline (DBNGP) is a transmission pipeline owned and operated by Dampier Bunbury Pipeline (DBP). DBP is part of the portfolio of companies that form Australian Gas Infrastructure Group (AGIG). AGIG is owned by various consortia of Hong Kong-based entities listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The consortia include CK Asset Holdings Ltd (CKA), CK Infrastructure Holdings Ltd (CKI), Power Assets Holdings Ltd (PAH) and CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd (CKH).
The DBNGP was constructed by the State Energy Commission (SECWA) to transport gas from the North West Shelf gas fields near Dampier to customers in the south-west of WA. Construction began in 1982 and was completed in 1985 with the pipeline being extended to Bunbury. The SECWA as well as funding the construction of the pipeline also had the foundation contract for the supply of gas. The DBNGP was also developed with the support of Alcoa as its initial cornerstone customer. In 1998, as part of the privatisation of the SECWA the DBNGP was sold to Epic Energy.
The DBNGP is over 1,547km in length of which 1,252 km are looped. It consists of a mainline and several laterals (total length of laterals is 299km). The pipeline capacity has been expanded at various stages with looping and upgrades to compressors. The three recent expansions (stages 4, 5A and 5B) have increased capacity of the pipeline to over 845TJ per day.
The DBNGP was a covered pipeline and regulated by the Western Australian Office of Gas Access Regulation (OffGAR, now the Economic Regulatory Authority (ERA)) under the Gas Code. Under the National Gas Access (Western Australia) Regulations, the DBNGP is classified as a ‘designated pipeline’. This means that under the NGL (ss. 109 and 111) the DBNGP remains under full regulation and cannot be the subject of a light regulation determination.
The DBNGP is subject to regulation by the ERA under the NGR.