NGPAC agreed on 20th March 2002 to a program of public consultation in relation to a significant proposed change to the Code.

• The amendments being considered would allow one access arrangement to apply to two covered pipelines.

In accordance with Section 9.2 of the Code, NGPAC is inviting submissions from interested parties on the proposed Code change. All written comments will be treated as public documents and will be made available to interested parties on payment of an administration fee.

Written comments on the possible amendment should be sent by COB Friday 24 May 2002 to:

Anna Witty
Executive Officer
NGPAC Secretariat
L19, Wakefield House
30 Wakefield Street, Adelaide SA 5000

From late January 2007, we will be located at:

Level 8 ANZ Building (City Central Tower 1)
11 Waymouth Street
ADELAIDE

All telephone, fax and email details will remain the same.

Respondents are required to supply a copy of their submission in electronic form (Word 6 or 7), as well as a signed printed version. The electronic form can be forwarded to the Secretariat’s e-mail address.


Download the Information Memorandum PDF (200 KB)

Public Consultation (6^th April 2001) Responses

Public Consultation (2^nd February 2001) Responses

Public Consultation (2nd February 2001)

NGPAC, at the 28 November 2000 meeting, agreed to a program of public consultation in relation to a significant proposed change to the Code as follows:

The amendment being considered has been put forward by the Australian Pipelines Industry Association (APIA) on behalf of Epic Energy in the context of it's proposed new gas transmission pipeline between Darwin and Moomba. The APIA proposal seeks to amend the Code in order to remove - on an interim basis pending the outcome of forthcoming reviews - the possibility of 'regulatory overlap' that could arise by the dual regulation of a new pipeline under both the Code and Part IIIA of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (TPA).

Written comments on the possible amendment should be sent by COB Friday 23rd February, 2001 to:

The Executive Officer
NGPAC Secretariat
L19, Wakefield House 
30 Wakefiled Street, Adelaide SA 5000

From late January 2007, we will be located at:

Level 8 ANZ Building (City Central Tower 1)
11 Waymouth Street
ADELAIDE

All telephone, fax and email details will remain the same.


Respondents are required to supply a copy of their submission in electronic form (Word 6 or 7), as well as a signed printed version. The electronic form can be forwarded to the Secretariat's email address.

Click on these links to download the original proposal from Epic Energy and Cover Sheet from APIA and the subsequent Information Memorandum. 

The Code Change process

Section 9.1 of the Code provides that the Code may be amended by agreement between the relevant Ministers following receipt of a report from NGPAC recommending a change.

Section 9.2 of the Code provides:

"A report by the NGPAC for the purposes of section 9.1(a) must state whether the NGPAC considers the amendment it recommends to be significant or not significant. If the amendment is considered to be significant, the report must confirm that the recommendation is made following a public consultation process under which the NGPAC has:

(a) prepared an information memorandum setting out the amendment being considered and a statement of why such amendment may be desirable;

NGPAC is the only entity which can make recommendations to Ministers on proposed changes to the Code to improve its operation. In assessing proposals to amend the Code, NGPAC must determine the level of significance of the change.

In the case of significant changes an open and transparent public consultation process will be incorporated into the assessment of the proposed Code change.

The Committee has established a set of guidelines to enable it to consistently deal with proposals. In addition, a pool of independent advisers has been established, consisting of economic, legal and technical experts, to assist it in assessing the proposals.

Public Consultation (June 2000)

The table below contains submissions received in respect of the Public Consultation (June 2000) process.

Information Memorandum (June 2000)

The Information Memorandum is available for downloading as a PDF 0.2 Mb, Word document* 0.2 Mb or RTF 0.1 Mb The Information Memorandum contains one proposed amendment to the National Third Party Access Code for Natural Gas Pipeline Systems:

• Permitting the use of across-period incentive mechanisms.

The October 1999 Information Memorandum is shown below. No comments are sought on this document.

Information Memorandum (October 1999)

The Information Memorandum is available for downloading as a PDF 0.1 Mb, Word document* 0.2 Mb or RTF 0.3 Mb

The Information Memorandum contains four proposed amendments to the National Third Party Access Code for Natural Gas Pipeline Systems:

1. When an Access Arrangement may be Accepted by a Regulator Code section 2.16, 2.19 and 2.20.
2. Who may be a Service Provider? Code section 4.1 (a).
3. Factors to be considered by Relevant Regulator in determining whether to waive ring-fencing obligations Code section 4.15 (a) and 4.15 (b).
4. Disclosure of End User Information Code section 4.1 (f-g).

Submissions were received for this Information Memorandum in November 1999. These were analysed by NGPAC, and subsequent proposed amendments to the National Third Party Access Code for Natural Gas Pipeline Systems, were recommended to the relevant ministers on the 22nd of May 2000 (as per section 9.1 of the code). Available for download are Recommendation A (Word document* 0.1 Mb, PDF 0.1 Mb), Recommendation B (Word document* 0.1 Mb, PDF 0.1 Mb), Recommendation C (Word document* 0.1 Mb, PDF 0.1 Mb) and, Recommendation D (Word document* 0.1 Mb, PDF 0.1 Mb). Comments are not sought on these recommendations to ministers.

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