Cape Town - The Competition Commission has referred a complaint of excessive pricing of natural piped gas against Sasol Gas to the Competition Tribunal for prosecution after the commission found that the company was overcharging by 72%.
Commission spokesperson Siyabulela Makunga said: “The commission found that Sasol Gas extracted markups of up to 72%. The excessive pricing has continued for almost a decade and is ongoing.”
This prosecution originates from three complaints against Sasol Gas that were lodged with the commission early last year.
The complaints were lodged by gas traders Egoli Gas and Spring Lights Gas, as well as by the Industrial Gas Users Association of South Africa (IGUA-SA), whose members are industrial gas customers.
The complainants alleged that Sasol Gas engaged in excessive pricing of natural piped gas in contravention of the Competition Act.
Makunga said the commission relied on publicly available information to assess the prices charged by Sasol Gas to the complainants against the costs of supplying natural piped gas.
“This information consists of the gas landing cost information that Sasol Gas provides to the US Securities and Exchange Commission each financial year.
“It is also taken from information recorded by the SA Revenue Service (Sars) in its Trade Statistics Data, reflecting the value and volume of natural gas imports from Mozambique.”
In May this year, the tribunal announced that it granted an interim relief application brought by IGUA-SA, prohibiting Sasol Gas from increasing the price of piped natural gas above R68.39 per gigajoule (GJ) for the next six months.
The interdict had been brought as a result of Sasol Gas telling its customers that it intended to increase its price for natural gas to R133.34 per GJ back in August last year.
Following an outcry by customers, Sasol decided not to implement a price increase pending further discussions with the sector regulator, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa).
IGUA-SA’s complaint at the Competition Commission alleged that Sasol was abusing its dominant position in the market by charging an excessive price for gas, to the detriment of consumers and customers.
Tribunal spokesperson Gillian de Gouveia said at the time that the tribunal concluded that IGUA-SA had shown, on the face of it, that an increase to Sasol Gas’s price for natural gas would result in an excessive price.