ALINTA boss Bob Browning has not ruled out the prospect of housing the proposed $A3 billion PNG-Queensland gas pipeline within the new Alinta Infrastructure stable.

Speaking on Tuesday at the Australian Institute of Energy in Melbourne, Browning said he would like to add the pipeline to the new company's portfolio once it moves from the development phase, according to the Age.

"In its formative stages, it's probably better for AGL to have it," Browning said.

"Once it's up and filled to the 30-50% level, then it starts to get categorised as an asset that would fit more appropriately with us. We'll certainly keep an eye on it."

Alinta and Australian Gas Light Company are expected to complete a merger of their assets that will see Alinta control the infrastructure portfolio, estimated to be worth more than $6 billion. The proposed pipeline, however, was not included as part of the merger.

AGL and Malaysian petroleum company Petronas are in the final stages of completing the Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) component for the project with financial close expected by year-end.

The project involves the construction of almost 4000km of pipeline linking PNG to Australia. The pipeline is expected to pump gas from the PNG Gas project for sale to Australia's east coast markets by 2009.

Project partners in the proposed $US2.5 billion PNG Gas project, including Oil Search and ExxonMobil, are also close to a project sanction decision, expected in the second half of this year.

The PNG Gas project is expected to produce around 250 Petajoules per annum over about 20 years.

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