ACCC authorizes coordinated LNG facilities maintenance on Curtis Island

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission on Thursday granted a five-year permission to LNG projects on Curtis Island near Gladstone to discuss their maintenance schedules, maintenance providers, and maintenance techniques.

“Coordinating the maintenance undertaken at these facilities will increase the efficiency of these events and reduce the likelihood of major disruptions to domestic gas markets, which could occur if multiple maintenance events at the Applicants’ facilities overlap,” ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said.

In case one of the facilities is offline, their gas can be supplied to the wholesale markets for sale, the ACCC said in its statement.

Wholesale traders were concerned that the coordination between the LNG facilities would allow them to trade advantageously in gas markets, because each LNG facility will know when maintenance is going to occur.

In order to avoid this, ACCC has included a condition in its authorization, requiring the LNG producers to “publicly disclose maintenance schedule information that they share with each other.”

In regards to the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) draft proposal that LNG producers publish two-year forecasts of their facilities’ capacity and gas demand, including any scheduled downtimes, ACCC decided such a condition was not appropriate.

However, ACCC does require producers to update the information published should there be a change.

The three producers at the Curtis Island are Australia Pacific LNG, Santos GLNG and Queensland Curtis LNG.

LNG World News Staff