MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Australia’s largest gas pipeline company, APA Group, has expanded its long-term research for the construction of gas infrastructure in the United States to include companies that have electricity networks, his boss said Tuesday.
The APA has been looking at acquiring the North American pipeline industry for several years, previously saying it aimed at controlling control in an industry with an enterprise value of up to A $ 4 billion ($ 3.2 billion). .
CEO Rob Wheals said the company sees $ 2.6 trillion of investments needed in renewable energy and renewable generation infrastructure in the United States over the next 20 years to meet mobile energy needs.
The APA is now looking at integrated gas and electricity distribution companies, where it expects growth to meet net zero emissions targets, as well as gas pipelines and utilities.
“North America remains a very attractive market for APA and is critical to our updated strategy,” Wheals told analysts at a half-year results conference call.
“We’re going to do something big enough to make sense but not big enough to bet on the farm,” he told Reuters.
The APA also plans to spend more than A $ 1 billion between 2021 and 2023 on projects in Australia, including a three-phase expansion, 50% of gas delivery capacity from the northeastern state of Queensland to Sydney .
And it will spend $ 3 million on research to test what it would need to do to refill a 43 km (27-mile) section of one of its pipelines in Western Australia to extract pure hydrogen. behavior, in the first such trial in the country.
Other tests of hydrogen in gas pipes have involved mixing small amounts with gas.
“This is to find out what needs to be 100% hydrogen ready, which could be a game changer,” Wheals said.
($ 1 = 1.2629 Australian dollars)
Reciting with Sonali Paul; edited by Richard Pullin