Western Australia, generator of more than a third of the nation's exports, restarted the state's biggest power station last night, helping to ease a gas shortage that may cost A$6.7 billion ($6.4 billion).

The coal-fired Collie Power Station, able to produce 330 megawatts of electricity, will reduce the shortfall triggered by a June 3 explosion that damaged pipelines at Apache Corp.'s plant on Varanus Island in the northwest, state Energy Minister Francis Logan said in a statement today.

Collie was shut down for unplanned maintenance at the end of May because of damaged turbine blades, exacerbating the impact of the Varanus Island blast that cut 30 percent of Western Australia's gas supplies. The restart of the Verve Energy-operated plant will reduce the need for more expensive diesel being burned for power generation and make more gas available for industry, the minister said.

``I'm expecting some gas to be released to the market almost immediately through the Gas Bulletin Board at current market levels,'' Logan said in the statement.

The state introduced a Gas Bulletin Board July 2 to allow gas users and producers to make trades through an e-mail-based system. Mining companies and small businesses have been scrambling to secure fuel since the blast after the government gave hospitals and other essential services priority.