Webb said it would be up to the state-owned distributor Vencorp to decide the priorities of reconnecting gas customers. Victoria's 4.6 million residents have been without natural gas since an explosion last Friday which devastated Esso's Longford processing plant on the state's eastern coast.

The plant is supplied by gas from the Bass Strait field, a joint venture between Esso and the Broken Hill Pty Co Ltd. Webb said small amounts of low pressure natural gas will be reintroduced to gas plant number two in the next few days as part of the testing process. Plant number one was knocked out in the blast and fire last Friday.

If the tests are successful increasedquantities of gas will be introduced into gas plants number 2 and 3. Webb said gas system manager Vencorp will then decide when customers could draw gas from the system and in what priority.

"It will be Vencorp who will decide when it is appropriate for that system to have offtakes occuring," he said. He warned that although there are hopes significant supplies will be returning by the end of next week, a lot of work remains to be done.

The resumption of gas plants two and three plus additional supplies through an interconnector from New South Wales is expected to meet the state's demand through summer.

But Webb said it is still not certain when supplies will be available from the devastated gas plant one. The Longford plant has a daily production capacity of 200,000 barrels per day of stabilised crude oil, 40,000 barrels per day of raw liquefied petroleum gas and 450,000 million cubic feet per day of gas to supply natural gas customers.