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78. The Commission engaged Meyrick & Associates (Meyrick) to undertake a comparative benchmarking study of New Zealand and selected Australian gas pipeline businesses. A copy of the Meyrick report to the Commission is available on the Commission's website.^IV During consultation, Pacific Economics Group (PEG), on behalf Vector and NGC, provided a benchmarking study that compared Vector and NGC to forty US gas distributors.^V

79. Taken at face value, the results of the Meyrick and PEG analyses provide conflicting evidence on the efficiency of the New Zealand distribution businesses. As a result of the conflicting evidence and the unresolved factors associated with the two analyses, the Commission draws no definitive quantitative conclusions from the benchmarking analyses undertaken to date. Overall the Commission considers that the benchmarking analysis undertaken by Meyrick and PEG reinforces its prior reservations, and those expressed in submissions by interested parties on the Draft Framework Paper, about the ability in such studies to make like for like comparisons given the data currently available.

80. Chapter 11 (Benchmarking) describes in more detail the Meyrick and PEG analyses.

^IVMeyrick and Associates, Comparative Benchmarking of Gas Networks in Australia and New Zealand, Report prepared for the Commerce Commission, May 2004.

^VPacific Economics Group, New Zealand Gas Distribution Cost Performance: Results from International Benchmarking, June 2004.