Pipeline firm hits the skids, 200 jobs in doubt
THE future of 200 workers hangs in the balance after Queensland gas pipeline company iPipe hit the skids owing creditors about $19 million.
The company, which constructs and maintains gas pipelines across the state, was placed in administration last month owing money to more than 200 unsecured creditors including the Australian Tax Office and subcontractors.
Administrators Ernst and Young say they are hopeful the seven-year-old business can be salvaged after fielding more than a dozen expressions of interest from potential buyers.
EY associate director Michael Lawless said the company was keeping its doors open and workers remained employed while a buyer was sought.
“There has been significant interest (in the business),” Mr Lawless said. “We undertook an urgent assessment of their financial position and decided to continue to trade.”
Much of the company’s work was concentrated on the gas fields of the Surat Basin, where the impact of a boom in gas pipeline construction has waned in recent years.
However, iPipe had won a number of pipeline maintenance projects, including with QGC and Origin, in the past year. It also had partnered with the University of Queensland on research to improve coal seam gas extraction.
Expressions of interest for the business end tomorrow and EY said it hoped to have binding offers within a fortnight. Mr Lawless said there may be expressions to buy “certain assets” and not the business as a whole.
“Over the weekend and early next week we will go through those (expressions of interest) and make a short list,” he said.