BKW is not just a collection of brickworks - far from it - but gas is a vital input to its brick manufacturing plants.
This is from 'The Australian' online and should be in the paper on Friday 2 July 2021:
(it won't be pleasing to CEO Lindsay Partridge or BKW):
"Big gas buyers have been dealt a blow after the competition regulator rejected their pleas for changes to east coast pricing, the latest setback for local users who want changes to a benchmark linked between domestic and international markets.
The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission is reviewing its LNG netback formula — effectively the price of LNG shipped overseas less processing and shipping costs — which acts as a guide for prices Australian gas suppliers will snag for exporting gas and the level a domestic user will pay for supplies.
Australia’s east coast domestic gas price is now linked to international LNG prices and markets after Queensland’s three export projects started shipping local gas to customers in Asia in 2015 which effectively tied the two markets together.
Big users including Incitec Pivot boss Jeanne Johns...want America’s Henry Hub model which traditionally tracks at low levels given the much bigger scale and abundance of gas in the US market.
However, the ACCC rebuffed the idea in a draft decision released on Thursday.
“Our review found that for LNG producers on the east coast, exporting to Asia remains the main alternative to supplying the domestic Australian market,” ACCC Commissioner Anna Brakey said.
“Therefore Asian LNG prices, linked to the Japan Korea marker or an oil index, are the most relevant benchmark for calculating LNG netback prices for the east coast gas market.”
“Some stakeholders recommend the ACCC use Henry Hub prices as a starting point for calculating LNG netback prices. We do not consider this to be appropriate. Henry Hub prices reflect the supply-demand fundamentals of the US domestic gas market and these prices currently have limited influence on Asian LNG pricing...."
(20min delay)