June 3, 2010The
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has issued its final decision authorising Santos QNT and ten other oil producers to jointly market their oil produced in the Surat Basin and Denison Trough in Queensland.
Without approval of these joint marketing arrangements, the ACCC considers it likely a number of the producers would cease oil production.
The producers currently transport oil from the Surat Basin and Denison Trough to the Lytton storage facilities in Brisbane.
Oil production from these regions represents a very small proportion of total oil production in Australia (currently around 0.3 percent), with some of the producers producing as little as a few barrels of oil per day.
Given the small volume of oil covered by the arrangements, as well as the significant influence of global oil prices on domestic oil supply contracts, the ACCC considers there is little, if any, anti-competitive detriment likely to result from the joint marketing arrangements.
The ACCC previously granted conditional interim authorisation to the arrangements on March 24.