The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today issued its final decision under the national gas access code to approve amended revisions to Epic Energy’s access arrangement for the South West Queensland Pipeline. This concludes a review process that commenced just five months ago when Epic lodged its proposed revisions to the access arrangement.
"In October the ACCC made a draft decision that it proposed not to approve the revisions that were submitted by Epic in July 2004 unless Epic made two amendments to them", an ACCC Commissioner, Mr Ed Willett, said today.
"A number of parties had expressed concern that certain non-forward haul and interruptible services would no longer be offered as reference services. To address these concerns, the ACCC required Epic to insert an undertaking not to charge more than existing tariffs for these services.
"The second amendment was to reinstate a trigger mechanism that provides for review of certain elements of the access arrangement should specified events occur. The ACCC considered such an amendment potentially very important in balancing the interests of Epic and other interested parties.
"On 18 November 2004 Epic lodged amended revisions that complied with the draft decision by inserting the undertaking and reinstating the trigger mechanism. Accordingly, the ACCC has approved Epic' amended revisions and the new access arrangement will come into effect on 15 December 2004".
The ACCC's decision document will be available on the ACCC's website or by contacting the Gas Branch Administrative Officer on 02 6243 1233.