Major gas outage hits 20,000 customers in regional NSW

Thousands of homes are without gas to cook or warm up their showers in regional NSW as a widespread outage could impact residents for hours.

About 20,000 customers in the central tablelands of NSW are without gas to heat their showers, homes and cook following a major gas outage.

Residents from Bathurst, Lithgow, Oberon, and Wallerawang are impacted by the outage.

A spokesman for gas supplier Jemena said the outage is a result of an incident on the Young Lithgow Pipeline which is owned and operated by natural gas and electricity infrastructure company, APA.

The site is located on private property near the Macquarie River and was reportedly impacted by recent flooding, making it difficult to access.

Residents in Bathurst, Lithgow, Oberon and Wallerawang are impacted by a gas outage. Picture: Supplied

“APA has isolated the affected section of the pipeline both up and down stream of the location,” a statement from APA said.

Crews are investigating the cause of the incident so they can begin repairs and get the network back up and running as “safely and quick” as possible.

APA is working on a potential solution to reinstate supply to the Bathurst offtake and relight the Jemena supply point.

the affected section of pipeline.

BATHURST GAS OUTAGE UPDATE: APA have just released an update. #breakingpic.twitter.com/kCUDPS906h

— Archie Staines (@archiestaines9) November 2, 2022

However, the Jemena spokesman said this “may take some time”.

“Once repairs are complete we will commence restoring customers‘ gas supply as safely and quickly as possible – as a result this may take some time and we will provide further information as it becomes available,” they said.

“We thank our customers for their understanding and support at this time,” the spokesman said.

Originally published as Major gas outage hits 20,000 customers in regional NSW