Key Points:
A key part of COAG-led gas reforms, the Wallumbilla Gas
Supply Hub, has started operations.
Australia's first voluntary short-term forward gas supply
hub, the new Wallumbilla Gas Supply Hub in Queensland, started
trading today.
Located at the junction of three gas pipelines, the hub is
operated by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), which
will offer spot and forward-dated products, including a
"day-ahead" product, a "balance-of-day"
product, and pipeline capacity.
Unless certain exemptions were obtained, AEMO's procedures
for netting of physical gas settlements across multiple
transactions and parties may have amounted to a derivatives
exchange and a clearing and settlement facility. In the absence of
those exemptions, the multilateral netting and clearing
arrangements in the hub rules would have had to have been left
deactivated, or otherwise:
