The SEA Gas pipeline is a 687km natural gas

Natural gas

Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...

 pipeline from the Iona Gas Plant in Victoria

Victoria (Australia)

Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

 to the Pelican Point Power Station at Port Adelaide

Port Adelaide

Port Adelaide is a suburb of Adelaide lying about 14 kilometres northwest of the City of Adelaide. It lies within the City of Port Adelaide Enfield and is the main port for the city of Adelaide...

. It connects Adelaide's

Adelaide

Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...

 gas supply to Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

 and Sydney's

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, thus increasing the security of natural gas supply to Adelaide. The pipeline is operated by the SEA Gas joint venture formed in May 2001 by Pelican Point Power (a subsidiary of International Power

International Power

International Power PLC is an international electricity generator formed in 2000 by the demerger of National Power. It is headquartered at Senator House, 85 Queen Victoria Street in the City of London...

 and operator of the Pelican Point power station) and Origin Energy

Origin Energy

-History:Origin Energy was formed in February 2000, as a result of a demerger from the Australian conglomerate Boral Limited, in which the energy business was removed from the building and construction materials business to form the new company....

 (a major Australian energy producer and retailer). In September 2003, TRUenergy

TRUenergy

TRUenergy is an energy company headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.Founded in 1995 as a retailer and generator of electricity, and a retailer of natural gas, the company is formed from the combination of retail and generation assets purchased by Hong Kong-based CLP from Singapore Power...

 (owner and operator of the Torrens Island Power Station) joined as an equal one-third partner.

The requirement for an upgrade to South Australia's natural gas infrastructure was first identified in June 2000 when the capacity of the MAP (Moomba

Moomba, South Australia

Moomba is a Santos-owned gas exploration and processing town located in the Cooper and Eromanga Basins, in central Australia, approximately 770 kilometres north of Adelaide....

 to Adelaide Pipeline) was close to being fully utilised. At this time, the MAP was the sole source of natural gas for Adelaide. As about two third's of electricity consumed in South Australia was produced by gas-fired power stations, it was determined that the state needed an additional source of supply of natural gas. An additional factor was the redundancy provided by having two independent supplies.

The need for this redundancy was dramatically confirmed when a fire at Moomba cut most of Adelaide's gas supply on the day SEA Gas began operation. The new pipeline supplied nearly all of Adelaide's gas needs at times while the damage was repaired.

Construction

The initial proposal was to build a 14" diameter high-pressure gas pipeline, operating at 15MPa

Pascal (unit)

The pascal is the SI derived unit of pressure, internal pressure, stress, Young's modulus and tensile strength, named after the French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and philosopher Blaise Pascal. It is a measure of force per unit area, defined as one newton per square metre...

. This was modified to dual 14" pipes for 338km of the route and an 18" pipe for the remainder when TRUenergy joined SEA Gas as to accommodate the additional capacity required by the Torrens Island Power Station. Construction commenced in October 2002, 180 km south east of Adelaide near Tintinara

Tintinara, South Australia

Tintinara is a town in South Australia on Dukes Highway and the Adelaide-Melbourne railway line. It is in the The Coorong District Council local government area, the South Australian House of Assembly Electoral district of MacKillop and the Australian House of Representatives Division of Barker...

. Operations commenced on 1 January 2004, however the project was not officially opened until 15 March 2004.
Construction was carried out on an engineer-procure-construct (EPC) basis by a joint venture between Australian pipeline company AJ Lucas Group and French company Spie Capag.