Western Australian Current Regulations

NATIONAL THIRD PARTY ACCESS CODE FOR NATURAL GAS PIPELINE SYSTEMS - REG 3.36

3.36

                Nothing in section 3.34 limits or affects the operation of any provision of this Code except the provisions of section 3 relating to the content of an Access Arrangement to the extent that a Reference Tariff or other item included in the Access Arrangement may, under section 3.34, be determined in accordance with the tender process.

4.         RING FENCING ARRANGEMENTS

This section of the Code requires a Service Provider to establish arrangements to segregate or “ring fence” its business of providing Services using a Covered Pipeline. As a minimum, a Service Provider must:

·         be a legal entity;

·         not carry on a Related Business (essentially a business of producing, purchasing or selling Natural Gas);

·         establish and maintain separate accounts for the activity that is the subject of each Access Arrangement;

·         establish and maintain a consolidated set of accounts for all the activities undertaken by the Service Provider;

·         allocate costs shared between different accounts in a fair and reasonable manner;

·         ensure that Confidential Information provided by a User or a Prospective User is used only for the purposes for which it was provided and is not disclosed without the User or Prospective User’s consent;

·         ensure that Confidential Information obtained by a Service Provider which might reasonably be expected to materially affect the commercial interests of a User or Prospective User is not disclosed to any other person without the permission of the User or Prospective User to whom the information pertains;

·         ensure that Marketing Staff of a Service Provider are not also working for an Associate that takes part in a Related Business; and

·         ensure that Marketing Staff of an Associate that takes part in a Related Business are not also working for the Service Provider.

In addition to these minimum requirements, the Relevant Regulator may require the Service Provider to meet additional ring fencing obligations. The Relevant Regulator also has a discretion to dispense with some of the ring fencing obligations. The Gas Pipelines Access Law provides a mechanism for review by the Relevant Appeals Body of a decision by the Relevant Regulator in relation to imposing additional ring fencing obligations or waiving minimum ring fencing obligations.

This section of the Code also requires the Service Provider to establish procedures to ensure compliance with the ring fencing obligations.