National Gas Law

The application of the National Gas Law (NGL) in Queensland has occurred in two phases.

Phase 1

In 2008, the National Gas Law (NGL) (applied in Queensland by the National Gas (Queensland) Act 2008) replaced the Gas Pipelines Access (Queensland) Act 1998 as the framework regulating third party access to certain natural gas pipeline services. The NGL strengthened and improved the quality, timeliness and national character of the governance and economic regulation of pipeline services, while increasing consistency between electricity and gas regulation.

Key changes in the NGL (compared to the previous Act) included:

• completion of the transfer of jurisdictional governance and institutional arrangements for economic regulation of gas transmission and distribution to the national framework under the Australian Energy Regulator and the Australian Energy Market Commission, already in place for electricity
• introduction of new incentives to encourage investment in gas infrastructure
• implementation of a streamlined rule change process. As a result of the reforms, the rules that govern the regulation of pipeline services, which were embodied in the National Gas Code, were replaced with rules made under the NGL
• establishment of a Bulletin Board to provide information about natural gas services and assist in the response to gas emergencies.

Phase 2

Amendments to the NGL in mid-2009 introduced a regulatory framework for the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) to be the single national gas market operator.