Exxon, BHP in Australia gas divorce

Australia

MELBOURNE, December 18, 2017 – ExxonMobil and BHP have decided to end the Gippsland Basin Joint Venture under pressure from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), international media reported on Monday.

 

The marketing JV, which has operated for nearly five decades, has been facing possible litigation, Reuters reported.

“The ACCC was concerned that the joint marketing arrangements were likely to have resulted in a substantial lessening of competition in the market for the supply of gas to buyers in the southern states,” ACCC chairman Rod Sims said, cited by the agency.

The JV will stop marketing gas at the end of 2018, the report added.