PNGRB

Suppose an entire city's gas supply depended on a single company's pipeline network, with no other player realistically able to build a rival network alongside it. Left unchecked, that company could charge almost anything it wanted. PNGRB, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board, exists precisely to prevent that outcome.

PNGRB authorises which company gets to operate a City Gas Distribution network in a given geographical area, sets the rules and tariffs for third party access to gas pipelines, and generally oversees the downstream gas sector to make sure a natural monopoly does not turn into an unchecked one. It runs the CGD bidding rounds that award new geographical areas to companies, and it can step in on tariff disputes between a pipeline owner and a company wanting to use that pipeline.

Every time a new city gets a CGD licence auctioned, PNGRB is the body running that process, and it is also the first place industry looks when a pipeline tariff dispute needs resolving.