Our Ref:		S2005/68
Your Ref:	
Contact Officer:	Blair Burkitt
Contact Phone:	9290 1442

3 January 2006

GasNet Australia – Application under section 21 of the Gas Code in relation to forecast New Facilities Investment

On 22 December 2005, GasNet Australia lodged an application seeking the ACCC’s agreement under section 8.21 of the National Third Party Access Code for Natural Gas Pipeline Systems (Gas Code) that forecast New Facilities Investment (‘the Corio Loop’) will meet the requirements of section 8.16(a) of the code.

The effect of the ACCC’s agreement will be to bind the ACCC’s decision, when it considers revisions to GasNet’s Access Arrangement in 2007.

An agreement under section 8.21 of the code is limited to whether the proposed investment will meet the requirements of section 8.16(a) of the code.  However, GasNet Australia’s application also identifies a number of options in terms of when New Facilities Investment enters the capital base.  While these options will have implications for the purposes of determining reference tariffs for the next Access Arrangement period and subsequent Access Arrangement period, they are beyond the scope of a section 8.21 agreement and will need to be considered together with revisions to GasNet Australia’s Access Arrangement in 2007.  Accordingly, submissions on this application should not focus on reference tariff issues.

GasNet Australia’s section 8.21 application and supporting information, VENCorp, Major System Augmentation Report for the Victorian Principal Transmission System are available on the AER’s website at http://www.aer.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/691317

Interested parties are invited to make submissions to the ACCC on any issues relevant to this section 8.21 application by 10 February 2006.  The ACCC prefers that all written submissions be publicly available to foster an informed, transparent and robust consultative process.  Accordingly, submissions will be treated as public documents unless otherwise requested.  Parties wishing to submit confidential information are asked to provide both confidential and non-confidential versions of their submission.  All non-confidential submissions will be placed on the AER’s website.  Any information for which confidentiality is claimed will be dealt with under sections 7.11-7.13 of the code.  Please supply submissions in electronic format compatible with Microsoft Word to the review email address gna@accc.gov.au.  In addition, one original signed document should be emailed to the postal address below:

Mr Sebastian Roberts
General Manager
Transition Branch
AER
GPO Box 520
Melbourne Vic 3001

A copy of the Draft Decision and Final Decision documents will be sent to all parties who make a submission.  The default form of distribution is to email the copy.  If you prefer to receive a hard copy, please indicate this in writing when you lodge your submission and indicate the postal address to which it should be sent.  

Similarly, if you do not make a submission but wish to receive copies of decisions, please send details of your request to the above postal or email address.  Non-confidential versions of submissions, any consultancy reports, further information from GasNet Australia and other relevant material will also be placed on the AER’s website.

Please contact Blair Burkitt on (03) 9290 1442, or at the above email address, if you have any queries on this matter.