Oz Regulator Warms to East Coast Reservation Policy

Australia’s competition regulator has changed its attitude towards having a gas reservation policy on the country’s east coast with its chair Rod Sims now indicating that it would make sense.

“Before the [LNG] gas plants were built there were a lot of people, including myself, who said we shouldn’t reserve gas, that interrupts the market,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s The Business television program October 18.

“I think what we hadn’t seen, what I hadn’t seen, is the fact that we’ve got three large LNG producers when we really only had gas for two-and-a-half,” he said.

He also noted the moratorium and bans on gas development in states such as Victoria and New South Wales on the eastern seaboard.

“So, with all that and given the pain that it’s causing, I think if there was more gas found then making sure it flows to domestic uses would make a lot of sense,” he said.

When asked for clarification from the regulator, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, on its stance on a gas reservation policy for the east coast, a spokeswoman October 23 referred back to the comments made by Sims on The Business.

LNG is exported from the east coast via the ConocoPhillips-Origin Energy Australia Pacific LNG, Shell’s Queensland Curtis LNG and the Santos-led Gladstone LNG.