Gas (Information Disclosure) Regulations Newsletter (No. 4, April 2000)
[ Last Updated 21 December 2005 ]
Change of Name: Ministry of Economic Development
The Ministry of Commerce is now called the Ministry of Economic Development. There is no change to our postal address or telephone numbers but - please note - our email address is now med.govt.nz. For the time being correspondence will still be on the Commerce letterhead until a new logo is operational.
Review of Gas (Information Disclosure) Regulations
The review of the Gas (Information Disclosure) Regulations 1997 is nearing completion. The changes proposed take into account submissions from industry participants and interested parties.
The Ministry is about to report to the Government on amendments to the regulations, and expects to promulgate the new regulations soon. The Ministry will be proposing that the new regulations apply to disclosures for the 2000/2001 financial year.
The new regulations will largely follow the electricity disclosure regulations by:
- introducing the ACAM methodology for the financial disclosures;
- requiring specific items of revenue and expenditure to be disclosed;
- establishing a formal requirement for ODVs to be prepared to a prescribed methodology; and
- establishing a requirement to disclose Asset Management Plans.
Work is underway on a draft gas ODV Handbook. This will be circulated to the industry and interested parties for comment before it is formally promulgated and becomes a mandatory part of the gas disclosure regime. A handbook covering ACAM and Asset Management Plans is also in preparation.
Compliance with the Regulations
Timeliness: Last year no pipeline owner managed to publish their financial statements and performance measures in the New Zealand Gazette by the due date. However, two disclosures were only three days late and the remaining three disclosures were published within three weeks of the deadline.
Comparative data: The Ministry detected the same error in four of the five disclosures ? a failure to disclose comparative performance measures for more than one year. The regulations are quite explicit and require comparative performance measures for the last three years. However, given the time when the regulations were introduced, only two years? comparatives were required for this last round of disclosures. This year?s disclosures will require three years of comparatives.
Penalties for Failure to Comply
Companies should note that the two points mentioned above are breaches of the regulations. Pipeline owners should note that failure to comply with the Gas (Information Disclosure) Regulations 1997 is an offence under the Gas Act 1992 and that such offences carry heavy penalties. In respect of disclosure performance the Minister has instructed the Ministry this year to take prosecutions where appropriate
Information to Be Supplied to the Secretary
Pipeline businesses are also reminded that copies of all items required to be disclosed under the Gas (Information Disclosure) Regulations 1997 must be supplied to the Secretary of Commerce within 5 days of disclosure (Section 56 of the Gas Act 1992, and Section 3 of the Gas Amendment Act 1997 refer). Material supplied to the Secretary must also be accompanied by Form 5 as prescribed in the Gas (Information Disclosure) Regulations 1997.
Disclosures should be sent to:
The Secretary
Ministry of Economic Development
PO Box 1473
WELLINGTON
Attention: Russell Vogtherr
Unit Manager
Energy Markets Regulation Unit
Resources and Networks Branch
Questions about Disclosure Requirements
If pipeline businesses have issues or questions about the disclosure requirements, which they would like to discuss, they should contact either Russell Vogtherr or Ray Deacon of the Energy Markets Regulation Unit. Contact details are:
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