THE Maranoa could benefit from dozens of jobs thanks to an $80 million gas pipeline project.

Australia's largest natural gas infrastructure business has announced on Wednesday it would build a new 50km bi-directional pipeline.

The project will link APA's Wallumbilla Hub to the Australia Pacific LNG Pipeline at Reedy Creek north of Wallumbilla in southern Queensland.

State Development Minister Dr Anthony Lynham welcomed the announcement of the pipeline.

"The construction of this pipeline is great news for jobs," he said.

"With construction to start in 2017, the project is estimated to create 170 jobs including 20 permanent jobs within land access, approvals, technical design and procurement teams and 100 to 150 jobs for the construction phase of the project."

Dr Lynham said this would give APLNG the flexibility to send gas either to Gladstone for export LNG production or directly to the domestic gas market.

"My Department of Natural Resources and Mines is currently assessing APA's application for a petroleum survey licence as the first step to investigating various alternative pipeline routes between the existing facilities," he said.

"The resources industries continues to provide jobs and business opportunities for Queensland's regional communities, with this project coming on top of QGC's $1.7 billion Charlie natural gas development near Wandoan," he said.

The new APA pipeline will have a capacity of up to 300 terajoules a day and mean that more Queensland gas can be transported to southern states via Wallumbilla and then to Moomba in South Australia.

Construction will start in 2017 and the pipeline is forecast to be commissioned in mid-2018.

For more details on the project, see Friday's Western Star.