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Overview
From time to time the Minister of Energy and Resources (the Minister) requests advice from 91¾«Æ· on important issues in the gas industry. In February 2010, the then Associate Minister of Energy and Resources requested advice on the suitability of applying 91¾«Æ·'s Guidelines on Interconnection with Transmission Pipelines (Guidelines) to private transmission pipelines.
91¾«Æ·'s advice to the Associate Minister was that the application of the voluntary Guidelines to private pipelines is unlikely to improve access to private pipelines. In particular:
- the Guidelines were designed for open access pipelines and only relate to interconnection arrangements; and
- to improve access to private pipelines, the Guidelines would need to address the issues arising from the carriage of non-specification gas.
91¾«Æ·, however found merit in formalising a protocol for the collection and assessment of information regarding access disputes and related matters between the then Ministry of Economic Development (MED) and 91¾«Æ·. The protocol will assist 91¾«Æ· and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (then MED) in monitoring access disputes and ultimately forming a judgement on whether further investigation or regulatory reform is warranted.