LNG facility in Poland
A general view shows the construction site of Poland's first liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, in the Baltic port of Swinoujscie July 23, 2014. Poland is building the terminal at at a cost of around 3 billion zlotys ($977.2 million). It will be able to accept 5 billion cubic metres of gas per year, with plans to expand it to 7.5 billion. Picture taken July 23, 2014. Reuters/Filip Klimaszewski
A general view shows the construction site of Poland's first liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, in the Baltic port of Swinoujscie July 23, 2014. Poland is building the terminal at at a cost of around 3 billion zlotys ($977.2 million). It will be able to accept 5 billion cubic metres of gas per year, with plans to expand it to 7.5 billion. Picture taken July 23, 2014. REUTERS/Filip Klimaszewski (POLAND - Tags: BUSINESS CONSTRUCTION POLITICS ENERGY)

British Gas's BG Group is bidding out its $3 billion pipeline assets in Queensland, Australia, triggering a renewed competition between Hong Kong's Cheung Kong and the APA Group.

The pipeline assets are part of the BG Group's Queensland Curtis Island liquefied natural gas project, but it excludes the water assets.

Besides Cheung Kong and APA, other companies believed to be interested in the pipeline assets are the Industry Funds Management consortium which includes Queensland Investment Corporation and Enbridge of Canada, and the Hastings Fund Management, Borealis and Allianz consortium. Borealis is an infrastructure investor in Canada and Allianz is a German company.

The 540-kilometre pipeline transport coal seam gas from the Surat Basin to a processing facility on Curtis Island.

The Hong Kong consortium on Thursday got control of Envestra after APA took Cheung Kong's $2.37 billion offer for a one-third stake in the gas distributor. Li Ka-shing, Asia's richest man, controls Cheung Kong. Besides the Australian bid, the consortium has been looking for stable investments in the UK, Ireland and New Zealand, which are considered stable markets, because of scant expansion opportunities in the former Crown Colony.

Meanwhile, Japan's Marubeni joined APA in bidding for the Queensland assets which it would use to fund APA's ongoing growth and investment projects in the coming 12 to 18 months.

BG is heavily dependent on Brazil where the oil giant's operations in the huge Sapinhoa field are almost at capacity at 120,000 boe/day.

On July 31, BG reported first-half revenues of $10.6 billion, up 14 per cent compared to a year ago, while its net debt went down to $10.4 billion from $11.2 billion a year ago.

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