The next time BHP whinges about the price of electricity in SA, remember this:
The competition watchdog has launched a formal investigation into the Bass Strait gas marketing arrangements of ExxonMobil and BHP Billiton, two of the biggest winners of the east coast crunch, to see if they have contravened the Competition and Consumer Act.
… an ACCC spokesman told The Australian the commission was formally investigating a 50-year-old arrangement between Exxon and BHP to jointly sell their Bass Strait gas.
“The ACCC is currently investigating issues arising from joint marketing arrangements of the Gippsland Basin joint venture to determine whether there may be any contravention of the Competition and Consumer Act and, if so, what action ought be taken,” the spokesman said.
The enforcement investigation follows on from a statement a year ago from the ACCC, in the wake of a year-long ACCC inquiry into the east coast gas market, that it would “consider the competitive effect of the joint marketing arrangements of the GBJV”.
The ACCC should break the JV and force it market separately. It holds a sizable 7% of east coast reserves:
