Clash of cycles’
ACCC chief Rod Sims will use an industry conference in Darwin to press the case for regulation of more gas pipelines to cut shipment costs and lambast state governments for restricting supplies.
He will tell the conference there is a need to encourage “more gas supply and more gas suppliers, better information for trading in the market, the creation of trading hubs in the north and south, improved access to transport infrastructure and better pricing information”.
Sims will say: “The east coast gas market is now in a ‘clash of cycles’, with historically high domestic gas prices coinciding with falling international oil prices.”
Addressing the costs of getting gas from the Northern Territory to the east coast, he will say: “It is important that the regulation of gas transmission pipelines, or the threat of regulation, is effective, which is not the case now.” Attacking the Victorian government moratorium on new gas, he will say: “Without new supply it is clear that gas prices must increase, which will damage users and increase household energy bills.
“The ACCC report on the east coast market found that if tariffs on some of the major routes in the east coast were, say, 50 per cent lower, then it could result in a $1/GJ reduction in the delivered price of gas in the southern states.”
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...e/news-story/3a753b3a9fdce9c3bbbcbda04ec3f123
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