Long-running gas dispute settled

By Phil Boeyen, ShareChat Business News Editor

Thursday 13th December 2001

A gas dispute which has been running for 13 years has been settled for $1.3 million by Natural Gas Corporation (NZSE: NCH) and its co-defendants.

NGC says the long-running dispute was with a Waikato company, Marine Resources Limited, and Mr J P Carey. It related to the allocation of a natural gas retail franchise under the former Gas Act 1982.

NGC says the claim sought $24 million with interest against the Crown, NGC and Petrocorp (now Shell).

"It was alleged that the defendants had breached the Commerce Act 1986 by failing to provide a supply of gas for the purposes of an application for a gas franchise under the Gas Act 1982 in the central North Island," NGC says.

"NGC at the time was a subsidiary of Petrocorp. Had the case proceeded to trial it would have required at least eight weeks hearing time and would have raised complex legal and technical issues."

All parties in the dispute announced on Thursday that they had reached an out of court, no liability settlement under which a total of $1.3 million will be paid by the three defendants to end the matter.

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