Australia's energy regulator initiated on Thursday a lawsuit against Santos Ltd saying the oil and gas producer breached auction record-keeping rules between March 2019 and June 2021.
The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) started the proceedings in the Federal Court alleging that a unit of Santos failed to maintain essential records of material renominations across six different auction facilities on 4,701 occasions.
The regulator is seeking penalties, an order requiring implementation of a compliance program, and costs, among others.
At Day Ahead Auctions, companies make a nomination specifying the quantity of gas they expect to move from one location to another the next day, which allows any spare gas capacity to be auctioned.
Companies can file a renomination request to modify prior nomination subject to certain circumstances, and are required to make records of the changes and reasons.
Santos said the national gas rules introduced in March 2019 were complex, and although the regulator recognized the complexity, it implemented a strict compliance policy from day one, which is contrary to approach for other gas market regulation.
"The number of occasions alleged by the AER is of limited relevance to the outcome of these proceedings," the oil and gas producer said.
(Reuters - Reporting by Sameer Manekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Subhranshu Sahu)