The purchase increases Agility’s presence the south-east supply region of Queensland, AGL managing director Greg Martin said, announcing the deal yesterday.

“By combining the technical competence and experience of the Oakland personnel with our capabilities, quality management processes and systems, Agility is confident that it will be able to continue to provide quality support for Energex and Ergon’s infrastructure requirements,” Martin said.

Energex and Ergon have a combined capital works budget of $1.33 billion for the financial year 2005/06, and a capital budget of $5.48bn to $6.65bn for the next five years.

“In conjunction with Agility’s existing overhead infrastructure services, the Oakland acquisition now provides Agility with the added capability to resource directly major turnkey projects,” Martin said.

AGL has been in operating in Queensland for 40 years and is also involved in the development of the Papua New Guinea-to-Queensland natural gas pipeline.