The competition watchdog has asked operators of six liquefied natural gas facilities in Western Australia and the Northern Territory to publicly disclose maintenance schedule information that they share with each other.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission on Friday allowed the four companies involved - Chevron, INPEX, Shell and Woodside - to coordinate maintenance activities, but imposed the public disclosure condition.
The cooperation will reduce concurrent work at their facilities, helping improve efficiency and maximising LNG production, ACCC chairman Rod Sims said.
"If producers become aware of each other's LNG facility shutdowns as part of this agreement, this information might give them an advantage in gas trading markets," Mr Sims said.
All the projects are primarily focused on exports but some are capable of diverting supplies to wholesale domestic markets, he said.
The four companies will operate six LNG projects between them.
While the Gorgon, Wheatstone, North West Shelf and Pluto LNG facilities in WA are already operational, the Prelude LNG facility in the state and the Ichthys LNG processing facility in NT are set to start operations this year.
The companies had sought authorisation last September to coordinate activities for a 10-year period, given that they compete for a limited pool of skilled contractors and specialised equipment to conduct scheduled maintenance.
However, the ACCC has only given authorisation for five years, citing significant uncertainty regarding the impact this would have on related markets.
