The Structure of the Australian Gas Industry

The structure of the Australian gas industry is quite complex as near about 150 gas companies are operating there. It can be classified on the basis of gas types, operational segments, deposit basins or groups of players can be grouped into three main types:

• International Majors (multinational companies)
• Australian Majors (domestic companies with market capitalisation)
• Juniors (small cap companies with little market or production share).

Though most of the gas players are junior, still the industry is dominated by major companies in every segment (Qiu et al.,2015).

Domestic gas market:- Based on gas basin and pipelines that supply them, the domestic gas market in divided into three separate regions:-

• Eastern Gas Region:-The gas basins supplier of this market contain about one third of Australia’s gas reserves.
• Western Gas Region:-The gas basins supplier of this market contain aboutone-half of Australia’s gas reserves. This market focuses on exports as well as supplies domestic consumption.
• Northern Gas Region:-This market is Australia’s smallest producer and its basin provide gas for export as well as domestic consumption in Northern Territory.

The gas markets in Australia are changing rapidly and there must be a balance between the supply and demand to ensure that Australian consumers and industry can access affordable gas anytime and anywhere. At present, the east coast gas markets are integrated and natural gas flows become more active to move the gas across the network to where it is needed (Cassidy & Kosev, 2015).

Gas Supply:- There are genuine impacts on the business and consumers in domestic markets due to the increasing gas demand pressure on both gas supply and prices. The key elements of gas supply industry are gas producers that generate gas, gas retailers that buy as well as sell gas and gas distributors that carry and bring gas to the end users through management of distribution networks. The industry growth is mainly due to increasing gas prices and as use by major markets.Companies retail gas to consumers and businesses. Companies also distribute natural gas, manufactured town gas, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), Coal Seam Gas (CSG),Underground Goal Gasification (UCG) to end users through gas distribution main. The industry excludes the operation of gas transmission pipelines, which transport gas from gas production facilities to gas distribution mains (Austvik, 2016).

One major player in gas retailing is AGL Energy Limited (AGL). AGL Energy Limited (AGL) is one of the leading integrated energy company in Australia, which generates and sells both gas and electricity for residential as well as commercial use (Corones, 2014).

Gas for private consumers:-

Gas is an efficient and low emission energy source for Australian customers. In their energy choices, consumers consider factors such as cost-effectiveness, appliances, home, lifestyle, environmental performance. Compared to other energy service, gas remains price competitive and is delivered to Australian homes at a cost which can be up to 80% lower than mains electricity on an equivalent energy basis.  The cost of gas to a customer reflects wholesale, network and retail costs. 

Domestic Gas Market in Australia

There have been increases to the wholesale cost of gas on the East Coast which reflects a combination of regulatory restrictions on gas production, increases in production costs and linkages to international markets. Nevertheless, the wholesale cost only represents about 20 to 25 % of the total costs to typical residential customers (Higgins, Dibden, & Cocklin, 2015). A customer’s gas bill will be more heavily influenced by network costs, which contribute around half of the average residential bill. Australian network operators are working hard to reduce network charges. In New South Wales over the next five years, Jemena’s network customers will see an average saving of $118 per year due to a 34% reduction in network charges.  As a result of stable or falling distribution network costs and increased retail competition, the outlook for residential gas prices remains competitive, even with rising wholesale prices (Simshauser & Nelson, 2015).

Gas for business customer:-

Australia’s distribution gas networks provide approximately 133,000 commercial and industrial customers with an essential input to growth, job creation and environmental performance. A quarter of Australia’s energy used comes from gas. The domestic gas sector was estimated to contribute almost $3 billion to value added GDP in 2013. Natural gas is widely used in commercial premises as an efficient source of heating and cooling. Gas is also a critical input to industrial operations including the manufacturing sector which employs about one million Australians.

It is commonly used to generate electricity, heat and steam for production including alumina refining, food manufacturing, beverage and grocery production. Gas is irreplaceable in the production of most fertilisers, cleaners, polymers and refrigerants, making it a crucial feedstock for industry (Haghkhah, 2016). Significant innovation in gas uses and technology are driving efficiency, economic growth and lower greenhouse gas intensity in industrial production.

Sustainable procurement practices for AGL:-

Sustainable procurement is a solution to integrate environmental and social considerations in all steps of procurement process, in order to reduce impacts on human health, environment, and human rights (Roman, 2017). The inclusion of sustainability considerations will strengthen the company’s long-term profitability as well as allow the company to contribute positively to the communities and the environment in which the company operate. A sustainable procurement program will minimize the subjection of AGL’s reputational risk from involving in business with the suppliers. However, the company needs to change the traditional sourcing approach to implant such considerations in the company strategy (Strand, 2013).

Gas Supply in Australia

The policy for sustainable development rests on four main goals: (i) social progress that recognizes the needs of all; (ii) effective environmental protection; (iii) prudent use of natural resources; and (iv) maintenance of high and stable levels of economic growth and employment levels (Pires,., Fidélis & Ramos, 2014).

AGL has implemented sustainable strategy to identify, manage, monitor and report on the material risks. AGL sustainability implies thinking about the responsibilities to the company’s stake holders such as employees, customers, investors and the community as well as to environment where all work and live.The provision of training to key procurement staff will enable AGL’s procurement professionals to understand the benefits associated with embedding sustainability principles as part of procurement processes. The training will provide the procurement team with adequate knowledge and tools to include sustainability considerations as part of sourcing activities.

The implementation of the company’s sustainable procurement program is divided into several phases. First phase aims to build the fundamental for sustainable procurement practice including expansion of necessary tools and processes to consider the social and environmental impacts of AGL’s purchases. In the financial year 2013, AGL created a sustainable procurement strategy to translate company wide sustainability targets into objectives for the procurement function. AGL has commenced the development of the AGL Supplier Code of Conduct and the AGL Sustainable Sourcing Policy.

The AGL Sustainable Sourcing Policy will formalise AGL’s sustainable procurement vision and objectives as well as the organisational approach to meeting such objectives (AGL Lapinskaite, & Radikaite, 2015). AGL’s Supplier Code of Conduct will establish the minimum sustainability requirements suppliers must meet as a pre-requisite to conduct business with (Klettner, Clarke & Boersma, 2014).

• In the financial year 2014, AGL has performed a supply based risk analysis for the purpose of high risk suppliers identification.
• In financial year 2017, AGL has implemented the ‘procure to pay’ policy that provides the guiding rules of company’s procurement activities.

Impact of new technologies on the end customers:-

New energy technologies such as digital meters, distributed generation, electric vehicles and battery storage (along with the products and services that are enabled by these technologies) have the potential to unlock benefits in Australia’s energy markets such as reducing customers’ energy bills, increasing energy efficiency, and improving the utilisation and productivity of existing energy infrastructure. Additionally, these technologies can give customers more control over their energy use and increase market participation and demand response through access to accurate real-time information (Chapman, McLellan & Tezuka, 2016).

AGL supports a customer-led approach to distributed resources where households and businesses are able to capture personal value from devices (e.g. for managing in-home comfort and energy spend), as well as offer services to networks or in the wholesale market. In this way, customers are able to share in the benefit delivered to the energy supply chain.

Gas for Private Consumers

impact of new technologies on the gas producers:-

Technology has crept into supply chain management (SCM) in a gradual and progressive manner, commencing with actions like electronic invoicing, computerised tracking and shipping and automated notifications and moving on to diverse and numerous other applications. Such incorporation of new technologies is being driven by diverse forces, like increasing customer expectations, intensification of competition, increasing fuel costs and greater demand for inventory control and Just in Time (JIT) management. Each and every link in a supply chain can be simultaneously monitored and automated notification systems can be used for sending messages to diverse players through different channels (Intermec Technologies Corporation, 2007).

Some of the top trends and technologies impacting supply chain operations, spanning production, distribution, retailing and remote servicing include (1) comprehensive connectivity, (2) voice and GPS communication integrated to rugged computers, (3) speech recognition, (4) digital imaging, (5) portable printing, (6) bar-coding advances, (7) remote management and (8) wireless and device security. Taking up the case of voice and GPS communication, leading cellular carriers have certified the utility of rugged hand held computers, which facilitate voice communication, data connection and cell phone functionality through one device (Fleming & Measham, 2015).

Developing a project integration management plan emphasizing on procurement:-

Project management integration is a set of processes that are required to ensure that various projects elements are properly coordinated. Project integration is very vital in all project work and helps in all aspect of the project, when properly performed, it ensure that all project processes run smoothly and will produce a series of deliverables such as project charter, scope management, project plan (Hornstein, 2015). Nowadays, large projects in gas industry face similarly challenging as they become increasingly complex and technologically demanding. Recent studies indicate that the traditional scheduling method used on oil and gas mega projects has critical limitations regarding resource scarcity, calculation of activity duration, and dealing with uncertainties. To overcome these limitations, the Theory of Constraints-based CCPM was proposed and implemented to provide schedule buffers management.

A procurement strategy that’s successfully integrated and implemented within the Project’s cascade of objectives and performance measures is recognisable by the following five characteristics (Memon et al., 2014).

• Clear “buy-in” from Project senior and broader stakeholders to the benefits from embracing an agreed role and purpose for the procurement process and how people need to interact to ensure that outcomes are achieved in a satisfactory manner.
• Competent professional commercial people playing a key role in the process, at the right interaction points, to ensure delivery of clear solutions from supply markets that meet Project needs.
• Key suppliers and contractors who treat the Project as genuine “preferred customers”.
• Processes, systems, measures and enabling structures that support delivery capability along the entire procurement process cycle.
• Capacity and capability that’s available at the right pressure points.

Setting out the Objectives, Goals and Guiding Principles

Strategy documents need to outline two key facets — the objectives of the strategy, and the goals which are necessary to achieve these objectives.

The goals describe what will actually happen and objectives describe what will be achieved as a result. The guiding principles reflect the core values on which the strategy is based, and which will inform all the actions which are planned as a result.

Gas for Business Customers

Procurement will:

• be transparent;
• be driven by desired results;
• create the most economically advantageous balance of quality and cost;
• reduce the burden on administrative and monitoring resources;
• lead to simplified or routine transactions;
• encourage open and fair competition; and
• follow all appropriate regulations and legislation.

These values in turn translate into key performance indicators that can be used to assess the quality of results.

References:-

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Cassidy, N., & Kosev, M. (2015). Australia and the global LNG market. Reserve Bank of Australia Bulletin, (March Quarter), 33-44.

Chapman, A. J., McLellan, B., & Tezuka, T. (2016). Residential solar PV policy: An analysis of impacts, successes and failures in the Australian case. Renewable energy, 86, 1265-1279.

 Corones, S. (2014). Behaviour v structure: Tribunal’s AGL Energy merger authorisation. Australian Business Law Review, 42(4), 313-316.

Fleming, D. A., & Measham, T. G. (2015). Local economic impacts of an unconventional energy boom: the coal seam gas industry in A ustralia. Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 59(1), 78-94.

Haghkhah, A. (2016). The Mediating Role of Commitment, Trust and Satisfaction in the Relationship of Business to Business Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty (Doctoral dissertation, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia).

Higgins, V., Dibden, J., & Cocklin, C. (2015). Private agri-food governance and greenhouse gas abatement: Constructing a corporate carbon economy. Geoforum, 66, 75-84.

Hornstein, H. A. (2015). The integration of project management and organizational change management is now a necessity. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2), 291-298.

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Lapinskaite, I., & Radikaite, G. (2015). Analysis of measurement of sustainable development in the insurance company. European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 11(13).

Memon, A. H., Rahman, I. A., Abdullah, M. R., & Azis, A. A. A. (2014). Factors affecting construction cost performance in project management projects: Case of MARA large projects. International Journal of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, 1(1).

Pires, S. M., Fidélis, T., & Ramos, T. B. (2014). Measuring and comparing local sustainable development through common indicators: Constraints and achievements in practice. Cities, 39, 1-9.

Qiu, J., Dong, Z. Y., Zhao, J. H., Xu, Y., Zheng, Y., Li, C., & Wong, K. P. (2015). Multi-stage flexible expansion co-planning under uncertainties in a combined electricity and gas market. IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 30(4), 2119-2129.

Roman, A. V. (2017). Institutionalizing sustainability: A structural equation model of sustainable procurement in US public agencies. Journal of cleaner production, 143, 1048-1059.

Simshauser, P., & Nelson, T. (2015). Australia’s coal seam gas boom and the LNG entry result. Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 59(4), 602-623.

Strand, R. (2013). The chief officer of corporate social responsibility: A study of its presence in top management teams. Journal of Business Ethics, 112(4), 721-734.