Reader Response - Gas perspective

Joe Poprzeczny’s recent commentary on the history of gas deregulation forgets to mention some key aspects of the deregulation of the gas industry he so vehemently criticises.

These aspects include:

• removal of the Government’s gas monopoly in the Pilbara under the North West Shelf agreements, thus enabling the Pilbara-to-Goldfields gas pipeline to be constructed by the private sector;
  
• the DBNG pipeline sale did not include the land easement from the Pilbara to the South West (SW). It was retained in public ownership and significantly widened, making it possible for a variety of new pipeline applications to be built including a gas competitor; and
  
• an independent regulator was established to ensure competitive access to the SW network.

Gas in Western Australia is now a deregulated market and market forces will work. Alinta itself has grown into a successful major national utility headquartered in WA.

I will politely refrain from suggesting how the electricity/gas issue could have been better handled in recent years.

Richard Court

Perth