Appeals decision on Dutch natural gas tariff likely before year end

Companies shipping gas through the Dutch grid are set to find out within the next three months if proposed cuts to the tariffs they have to pay have survived an appeal from the owner of the pipeline network.

The Dutch board of trade and industry (CBb) is likely to make a decision on the framework used to decide Dutch grid natural gas transport fees before the end of the year, ICIS has learnt.

The decision will respond to an appeal by Dutch grid operator Gasunie Transport Services (GTS) on how capital costs had been calculated by Dutch regulator the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM).

A spokesman from ACM, the body responsible for setting the framework – also known as the method decision – said that CBb foresaw that a decision would be available before the end of the year.

The CBb was unavailable to confirm this at the time of publication.

The 2014 method decision was published in October 2013 and outlined that tariffs GTS can levy on grid users would drop by 5% for three years starting in 2014 and by 6.5% for shippers using the regional network ( see ESGM 02 October 2013) .

GTS expressed concerns at the time over the level of return it would be able to earn on the existing assets following these regulatory changes. The operator believed the way the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) had been calculated did not recognise all capital costs, like for example the cost of debts.

ACM is due to start discussions on the 2017 method decision in the first quarter of 2015. Kirsty Ayakwah