Energy giant Santos has been accused by anti-coal seam gas lobby Lock the Gates of employing a “cynical strategy” to increase the price of gas in Australia.
Lock the Gates made the comments after presenting what it said was an “internal industry report” from Credit Suisse to the New South Wales state regulatory body, Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART).
AAP Newsagency reports the group cited a Credit Suisse report from March this year as saying Santos’ aim with its Gladstone LNG (GLNG) project “was always as much about raising the domestic gas price, and therefore re-rating large parts of its portfolio outside of GLNG, as it was about the project”.
Lock the Gates campaigner Georgina Woods urged IPART to rethink a proposed 17 per cent hike in NSW gas prices from July 1 in light of the allegations against Santos.
“Santos entered into a cynical strategy to push up our retail gas prices to re-rate their existing portfolio,” she told reporters after presenting the report to IPART,” she said.
“We don’t think it’s fair or equitable for NSW households to be asked to pay for those business decisions.”
AAP reports a Santos spokesperson dismissed the claim.
“The main driver for the rising gas prices is not the export market – it’s the rising cost of getting it out of the ground,” the spokesperson told AAP.
“The only way to place downward pressure on rising gas prices in NSW is to develop the natural gas reserves that are trapped in the ground.”
