The Australian Gas Infrastructure Group (AGIG) has announced that lower revenue, lower costs and maintaining strong safety, reliability and service performance are the focus of proposed future plans for Western Australia’s Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline (DBNGP).
The pipeline is the “backbone of the WA economy”, linking the gas fields in the State’s north-west directly to mining, industrial, and commercial customers.
AGIG’s Chief Customer Officer, Andrew Staniford, said the Draft Plan released today outlines DBNGP activities and expenditure proposed to be undertaken from 2021 through to 2025.
“The Plan proposes a $74 million cut in total expenditure, and a $130 million cut in revenue compared to the previous planning period.
“What we are proposing is to lower our costs by 11 per cent and reduce our revenue by 7 per cent, without compromising on safety, reliability or service. We believe this is good news for customers, and for Western Australia,” Mr Staniford said.
The Draft Plan has been prepared in consultation with customers and stakeholders to ensure it is in the long-term interests of customers.
“We have directly engaged with customers to shape this Draft Plan which we have released today for consultation six months ahead of lodging our Final Plan formally with the regulator.
“The feedback we have already received from our customers told us that price and the reliability of our service are fundamental for fuelling economic growth in Western Australia. We have listened and we are keeping costs down, while continuing to deliver on customer expectations for service,” he said.
“The Draft Plan provides an opportunity for our customers and stakeholders to understand and
comment further on our detailed approach before we submit our Final Plan to the Economic Regulation Authority (ERA).”
The AGIG will formally lodge its plans with the ERA by 1 January 2020 in the form of a revised AccessArrangement for the 2021-2025 period.
The AGIG is inviting submissions on the Draft Plan by 28 June 2019.
