On 19 October 2023, the AER instituted proceedings in the Federal Court against Santos Direct Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Santos Limited, for alleged breaches of rule 666(1) of the National Gas Rules.
The AER alleges that on 4,701 occasions between March 2019 and June 2021, Santos Direct failed to keep the required records of its material renominations across six different auction facilities, contravening Rule 666(1) of the National Gas Rules.
The AER is seeking declarations, pecuniary penalties, an order requiring the implementation of a compliance program, and costs.
Background
To facilitate the Day Ahead Auction, companies that have existing entitlements to capacity make a nomination a day in advance of when they intend to move gas from one location to another, specifying how much capacity they intend to use the next day. Any spare capacity is then made available in the auction.
A renomination is a request made, after the nomination cut-off time, to vary an earlier nomination for the use of transportation capacity. Renominations can only be made in limited circumstances and transportation facility users, such as Santos Direct, are required to make contemporaneous records of material renominations in order to clearly state the reason for each renomination, when the event giving rise to each renomination occurred and when the transportation facility user became aware of this event.