The Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline (DBNGP) is one of the largest capacity natural gas transmission pipelines in Australia, spanning 1,600 kilometres starting near the township of Dampier, running parallel to the coast of Western Australia, and finishing near Bunbury, south of Perth. It connects the gas fields located in the state’s northwest directly to mining, industrial and commercial customers. The pipeline is owned and operated by Dampier Bunbury Pipeline (DBP) and is part of the Australian Gas Infrastructure Group (AGIG).
The process for gas access arrangement reviews has changed since the ERA’s last review of DBP’s access arrangement for the DBNGP in 2021. There are now two key stages involved in the ERA’s decision making process for an access arrangement: (a) Reference Service Proposal and (b) Access Arrangement Proposal. Under the National Gas Rules, DBP must submit a reference service proposal to the ERA 12 months before submitting an access arrangement proposal.
On 8 December 2023, DBP submitted its reference service proposal. The ERA published DBP’s proposal for consultation on 9 February 2024 and on 1 July 2024 made the decision to not approve it. The ERA subsequently published its own reference service proposal, which retains the current three reference services (Full Haul, Part Haul and Back Haul) and specification of data and storage services as pipeline services that can reasonably be provided.
On 2 January 2025, DBP submitted its access arrangement proposal for the sixth access arrangement period (AA6): 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2030. The ERA published DBP’s proposal and related documents for public consultation on 23 January 2025. The ERA will publish an issues paper in due course to assist interested parties in making submissions.
The submission period on DBP’s proposal is due to close 1 April 2025.
