Bord Gáis has been granted licences to supply natural gas to 10 towns in Northern Ireland, making gas available in the North beyond the Greater Belfast area for the first time.

The gas will be conveyed along two major pipelines: the recently constructed North-West line, serving Ballymena, Coleraine, Limavady and Derry; and the South-North line, which serves Newry, Craigavon, Banbridge, Armagh and Antrim, and is due to be completed by 2006.

Bord Gáis has made a commitment to extend the service to as many towns and areas as possible over the next five years, and to reach 65,000 properties by 2018.

A spokesman for the Office for the Regulation of Electricity and Gas (OfReg) said the new service means that gas will be available to approximately 75 per cent of homes in Northern Ireland.

"Apart from places in the southwest such as Cookstown, Omagh and Enniskillen, Bord Gáis's proposal means that we will be reaching most large towns in the North," he said.

Bord Gáis offered to build the two pipelines in 2001, linking the gas transmission systems in the North and the Republic for the first time.

The supplier subsequently outbid Belfast-based Phoenix Gas for the licences to convey gas along these new lines.

Bord Gáis has about 500,000 customers on the island of Ireland and the new deal is expected to increase that by about 9 to 10 per cent in the next 10 years.

"We have a commitment for a minimum of 65,000 by 2018, but we would expect to have about 40,000 of those connected within a decade," said a spokesman.

"The two pipelines represent an investment by Bord Gáis of about €230 million, while the initial distribution costs will come to €57 million."

The licences were granted by the Northern Ireland Authority for Energy Regulation.