The Gas to the West main transmission line will include Clogher and Tempo, The Impartial Reporter can confirm.

At a cost of £200 million, the new gas pipeline was initially planned for the towns of Strabane, Omagh, Enniskillen, Derrylin, Dungannon, Coalisland, Cookstown and Magherafelt. Initial plans are understood to have had the main transmission line running along the A5 from Strabane to Omagh, then on to Enniskillen. The route is now set to include the Clogher Valley area.

The preferred bidders were announced in November 2014 as Northern Ireland Energy Holdings (Mutual Energy Ltd) for the high pressure supply and Scotia Gas Networks for the low pressure supply. The reserve applicants are BGE UK (high pressure) and firmus (low pressure).

The licence will be awarded this month, followed by engagement between the company and the local community on the gas network.

The Utility Regulator will hold an event in Enniskillen in early March allowing interested parties to be informed of proposed pipeline routes and towns to be connected.

The Northern Ireland Executive has pledged £32.5 million to the project.

In January, Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster told the Assembly: “There is very exciting news about the Gas to the West project … the most recent route map that I have seen includes the Clogher Valley.” Minister Foster told her Assembly colleagues: “I think that it will be a tremendously exciting time for areas of the west, which, frankly, have been forgotten about in relation to infrastructure. Many of our constituents are being left to their own devices and to fend for themselves. I am determined that the Gas to the West project will move ahead and will do so in a very timely manner.” She tells The Impartial Reporter: “The Gas to the West project has not been talked about much, but it really will make a difference to a lot of people right across the west of the province in our industrial firms and domestic homes. For example the glass factory in Derrylin is relying on the fact that they are going to have a cheaper source of energy in order to remain competitive.

“I am very pleased that the Clogher Valley is to be included.” UUP MLA Tom Elliott previously told Impartial Reporter that Acheson and Glover, Scotts Bakery, and Cooneen Group (in Fivemiletown) and Fisher Engineering (in Ballinamallard) should have the same opportunity to access gas as the Derrylin factories.