Compliance

Gas Industry Co has published a paper to inform reconciliation participants of the Market Administrator’s proposed approach to alleged breaches of rule 37.2 of the Downstream Rules and to invite comments on the proposal.

Comments on the proposal were invited by Friday 12 April 2019 and these are found below. 

In addition to the two submissions, Genesis also provided a brief email on 20 March 2019, indicating that it supports the proposed changes.

Related documents

• Approach to alleged breaches of rule 37.2 of the DR Rules

  111 KB Adobe Acrobat PDF file

• Market Administrator Guidelines on the materiality of breaches

  76 KB Adobe Acrobat PDF file

Submissions

• Greymouth Gas New Zealand Limited

  GGNZ Letter to GIC on r37.2 80 KB Adobe Acrobat PDF file

• Vector Limited

  Vector Submission Rule 37.2 174 KB Adobe Acrobat PDF file

The Market Administrator is responsible for notifying participants of breach allegations, determining whether a breach allegation raises material issues, attempting to resolve breach allegations that do not raise material issues with the agreement of the parties and referring breach allegations that raise material issues to the Investigator. Gas Industry Co acts as the Market Administrator under the Compliance Regulations.

Under the Compliance Regulations, the Market Administrator may be notified of an alleged breach if: 

• a participant under the Rules believes on reasonable grounds that it or another participant has breached the rules (reg 9);
• any consumer or other person (other than a participant) believes on reasonable grounds that a participant has breached the Rules and that they are affected by that alleged breach (reg 10);
• Gas Industry Co becomes aware of an alleged breach (reg 10); and
• the registry operator, allocation agent or critical contingency operator  believes on reasonable grounds that any other participant has breached the Rules (reg 11).

Notices of breach allegations can be given by filling in the form available in Related Documents below and emailing it to: [email protected]

The Market Administrator is required to make determinations on materiality of breaches, and to refer all material breach allegations to an Investigator for investigation. Parties may also require the Market Administrator to refer breach allegations it determines not to have raised material issues to an Investigator where the Market Administrator has decided to take no action on that allegation or has been unable to effect a settlement.

Related Information

Related documents

• Notice of Breach Template

  40 KB Word document

The Investigator has a range of powers under the Gas Act to investigate and report on breach allegations. On completing an investigation, the Investigator must endeavour to effect a settlement of the breach allegation within the timeframes set out in the Compliance Regulations. All settlements must be referred to the Rulings Panel for approval. If a breach allegation is unable to be settled, or a settlement is not approved by the Rulings Panel, then the Investigator must refer the breach allegation to the Rulings Panel for determination.

The Rulings Panel is an independent body appointed by the Minister of Energy and Resources under the Compliance Regulations.

The Rulings Panel approves or rejects settlements referred by an Investigator under the Compliance Regulations and determines breach allegations that are unable to be settled or in respect of which a settlement has not been approved.

Under section 40(2) of the Gas Governance (Compliance) Regulations 2008, the Rulings Panel must provide a summary of its procedures to Gas Industry Co who then must publish that summary. The Rulings Panel Procedures document is available below under Related Documents.

Related documents

• Rulings Panel Procedures - March 2016

  28 KB Adobe Acrobat PDF file

Regulations 81 to 84 of the Compliance Regulations provide for ongoing compliance fees to be paid on a monthly basis to meet the ongoing compliance costs. The ongoing fees are payable by participants under any gas governance rules and regulations:

• to which the Compliance Regulations apply; and
• that provide for ongoing fees to be paid to Gas Industry Co.

The Compliance Regulations currently apply to the Gas (Switching Arrangements) Rules 2008, Gas (Downstream Reconciliation) Rules 2008 and Gas Governance (Critical Contingency Management) Regulations 2008. To the extent that any compliance costs cannot be recovered through ongoing fee provisions, they will be recovered through the levy. To date there have been no such recoveries of compliance costs from the levy. The ongoing compliance costs include:

• The costs payable by Gas Industry Co to the Market Administrator, any Investigators, and the Rulings Panel; and
• Gas Industry Co's external costs associated with the operation of, and its obligations under, the Compliance Regulations during the year.

Gas Industry Co has determined that the compliance ongoing costs should exclude any overhead costs or policy work resulting from operational activities under the Compliance Regulations. Any such work is to be funded from the levy. The compliance ongoing costs therefore only relate to other direct external costs in connection with Gas Industry Co administering the Compliance Regulations and carrying out the Market Administrator role.

Prior to the start of each financial year, Gas Industry Co is required to determine and publish a breakdown of the estimated compliance costs to be recovered in that financial year. As soon as practicable after the end of each financial year, Gas Industry Co must determine and publish the actual compliance costs for that financial year apportioned to the relevant rules and regulations. Gas Industry Co must then invoice, or issue a credit note to, every person liable to pay the ongoing fees, with the difference between their share of the actual compliance costs and the amount of the estimated compliance costs paid by that person. 

Ongoing Costs for FY2025 (1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025)

Ongoing Costs for FY2024 (1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024)

Apportionment of compliance ongoing costs

Previous Years

Related Information

Related Information

Matariki

Gas Industry Co has determined that the new public holiday acknowledging Matariki is a non-business day under gas governance rules and regulations.

The Notice of Determination of Non-Business Day by the Industry Body (Gas Industry Co) under Gas Governance Rules and Regulations can be read below.

It provides for this additional non-business day until the rules and regulations are amended to include an explicit reference to Matariki alongside New Zealand’s other statutory holidays.

Queen Elizabeth II Memorial Day

Following the passing of the Queen Elizabeth II Memorial Day Bill on 20 September 2022, Gas Industry Co determines Queen Elizabeth II Memorial Day, Monday 26 September 2022, to be a non-business day for the purpose of the Arrangements.

The Notice of Determination of Non-Business Day by the Industry Body (Gas Industry Co) under Gas Governance Rules and Regulations can be read below.

Related documents

• Queen Elizabeth II Memorial Day Determination

  100 KB Adobe Acrobat PDF file

Determinations made by the Market Administrator can be viewed in the relevant year in the lefthand navigation.

Related Information

The Rulings Panel approves or rejects settlements referred by an Investigator under the Gas Governance (Compliance) Regulations 2008 (the 'Compliance Regulations') and determines breach allegations that are unable to be settled or in respect of which a settlement has not been approved.

Settlements approved by the Ruling Panel can be viewed in the lefthand navigation.

Related Information

The Rulings Panel approves or rejects settlements referred by an Investigator under the Gas Governance (Compliance) Regulations 2008 (the 'Compliance Regulations') and determines breach allegations that are unable to be settled or in respect of which a settlement has not been approved.

Decisions by the Rulings Panel can be viewed in the lefthand navigation.

Related Information

Four years following the implementation of the Gas Governance (Compliance) Regulations, Gas Industry Co undertook a review of the Regulations and proposed a number of changes. All relevant information relating to that review and the amendments to the Regulations can be found in this section.

Related Information

This section contains all information relating to the development of the gas industry compliance regime that provides for the monitoring and enforcement of the numerous gas governance arrangements.

Related Information

These regulations, which came into force on 1 April 2023, amend the Gas Governance (Compliance) Regulations 2008 (principal regulations) to take account of the making of the Gas (Facilities Outage Information Disclosure) Rules 2022 (rules), which provide for the disclosure of gas production and storage facility outage information. The effect of these amendment regulations is to enable the monitoring and enforcement of the rules under the principal regulations.

Related Information