Jemena is developing its restoration plan for a Queensland Gas Pipeline fault impacting major Central Queensland industrial customers, but has yet to announce a timeframe for its return to service.

The energy infrastructure company yesterday was mobilising additional crew to the region and securing equipment and materials required to conduct the repair.

The 627km Queensland Gas Pipeline links the Wallumbilla gas hub to large industrial gas users in Gladstone and Rockhampton. 

A leak erupted near Bauhinia, 220km south-west of Rockhampton, on Tuesday morning and the escaping gas was burning until the fire was extinguished that evening.

Related: Leak forces gas rationing for Gladstone processing plants

Resources Safety and Health Queensland (RSHQ) is continuing investigations into the leak, including excavating around the affected section of pipeline.

“Once the pipeline has been extracted, it will be taken for testing,” a spokeswoman said.

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has issued directions under the East Coast Gas Supply function to divert gas resources and supply to communities in the Gladstone and Rockhampton areas. AEMO has also directed large industrial users to either reduce or cease gas usage.

Queensland Conservation Council energy analyst Clare Silcock said the incident demonstrated the need to improve monitoring of existing gas infrastructure and transition safely to new renewable energy sources.

“A large part of our industrial energy in Queensland is met by compressing an extremely explosive hydrocarbon into pressurised pipes which run across huge tracts of Queensland before being burnt to create heat,” she said.

“We now have a huge amount of infrastructure built around a primitive method of creating energy. It’s become so normalised that we don’t often think about the massive risks but this incident has brought them to the surface.”