The arrangement will come into effect on 1 July this year.

The Executive General Manager of Standards Development at Standards Australia, Mr Peter Walsh, said: "The gas standards development process is essential to the industry and we are committed to seeing the gas industry and the Australian public continue to benefit from sound standardization outcomes."

"The 55 gas standards will be published on-line and in hardcopy alongside the more than 20,000 existing Standards Australia publications, with the industry benefiting from our expertise, systems and extensive national and international standardization resources."

The Chief Executive of the AGA, Bill Nagle, said the AGA was pleased that Standards Australia had agreed to assume responsibility for the development and maintenance of gas technical standards.

"The AGA has produced high quality technical codes and standards for many years. However, with the expected restructuring and convergence of some of the associations representing the downstream energy industry over the coming year, we wanted to ensure the ongoing stability of such an important function" he said.

"As Australia's pre-eminent standards organisation, Standards Australia has the expertise and systems to maintain gas technical standards for the benefit of the industry and the public."