Gas (Interim) (Regulation) Act, 2002

Unbundling of accounts of natural gas undertakings.

17.—(1) Every natural gas undertaking, whatever its system of ownership or legal form, shall—

(a) where the Companies Acts, 1963 to 2001, applies to it, draw up, submit to audit and publish their annual accounts in accordance with the requirements of those Acts, or

(b) where it is not required to publish annual accounts under the Companies Acts, 1963 to 2001, it shall cause its annual accounts to be audited as if it were a company to which paragraph (a) applied and make available for inspection at its head or principal office in the State by any member of the public a copy of the accounts it would be obliged to publish if it were a company to which paragraph (a) applied.

(2) (a)  For the purpose of avoiding discrimination, cross-subsidisation and distortion of competition, integrated natural gas undertakings shall, in their internal accounting—

(i) keep separate accounts for their transmission, distribution, storage and supply activities,

(ii) keep separate accounts for their supply business in regard to persons of the type mentioned in section 10A (inserted by section 14 ) of the Gas Act, 1976 , and

(iii) where appropriate, consolidated accounts for other, non-natural gas activities,

as they would be required to do if the activities in question were carried out by separate companies.

(b)  In preparing the accounts referred to in paragraph (a), integrated natural gas undertakings shall include a balance sheet and a profit and loss account for each activity to which that paragraph relates.

(c)  Integrated natural gas undertakings shall specify in notes to the annual accounts the rules for the allocation of assets and liabilities and expenditure and income which they follow in drawing up the separate accounts referred to in paragraphs (a) and (b).

(d)  The rules mentioned in paragraph (c) may be amended only with the approval of the Commission and any amendment to which this paragraph relates shall be mentioned and duly substantiated in the notes to the annual accounts.

(e)  The annual accounts of natural gas undertakings shall indicate in notes to their annual accounts any transaction of a certain size (being a size which, in the opinion of the Commission, would have a significant commercial impact) conducted with related undertakings, within the meaning of Article 2.18 of the Directive.

(f)  Integrated natural gas undertakings shall make available for inspection by the Commission accounts kept in accordance with this section.

(3) In addition to the requirements in subsection (2), the Board shall—

(a) in its internal accounting, keep accounts for each of its separate business activities, and

(b) provide all documents, records, accounts, estimates or other information, whether oral or written, in relation to such activities requested, from time to time, from the appointed day, by the Commission, in the form and at the times specified by the Commission, for the purpose for verifying that the Board (or a subsidiary of the Board) is complying with the conditions of any licence granted or any directive given to it by the Commission, or as may be required by the Commission in the performance of its functions under this Act.

(4) The Commission, from the appointed day, for the purpose of Article 12 of the Directive, shall have the right to require the preparation of and to have access to the accounts kept in accordance with this section of natural gas undertakings in whatever form may be required to discharge its functions under this Act.

(5) In this section—

“horizontally integrated natural gas undertaking” means a natural gas undertaking performing at least one of the functions of transmission, distribution, supply or storage of natural gas, and a non-natural gas activity;

“integrated natural gas undertaking” means a vertically or horizontally integrated natural gas undertaking;

“vertically integrated natural gas undertaking” means a natural gas undertaking performing two or more of the tasks of transmission, distribution, supply or storage of natural gas.