Big gas customers, pipeline owners, bureaucrats and governments will watch with more than curious interest in the deliberations. Already, Epic Energy has been making noises about not investing additional money in infrastructure if a negative legal decision does not go its way.
Epic, which bought the pipeline in 1998 from the then Court Government for $2.4 billion, wanted to charge $1 a gigajoule to Perth and $1.08/Gj south of Perth. However, a draft decision by the WA Office of Gas Access Regulation (OffGAR) recommended transportation tariffs of 75c/Gj to Perth and 85c/Gj south of Perth.
In August, Epic commenced legal action against the regulator, claiming he had failed to take into account the vested interests of all parties. Later that month, the WA Supreme Court ruled Epic had a case to argue and referred the action to the Full Court.
