MGA Roundtable on TPA Showcased Collective Commitment to Ensure Success of Gas Market Liberalisation

Tailored to provide a rare platform to policymakers and players in the Third Party Access (TPA) market to jointly deep dive into the progress of the gas market liberalisation, Malaysian Gas Association (MGA) on 4 May 2021 organised a virtual Roundtable Dialogue with the theme “Opportunities and Challenges in the Third Party Access market”.

This Roundtable, following the success of the first Roundtable on LNG Market held a month earlier, has successfully convened the most senior representatives from all the parties directly involved in the TPA market. It commenced with the Welcome Remarks by MGA President, Hazli Sham Kassim. The Roundtable itself was divided into two parts.

MGA President, Hazli Sham Kassim, delivering his opening remarks.

Part 1 provided updates from the policy, regulatory, infrastructure, actives shippers and consumer perspectives; essentially the entire spectrum of TPA. The following was the agenda for Part 1;

Zaeidah Mohamed Esa, Director of Energy, EPU, delivering Keynote Speech.

Part 2 was where the heavy discussions took place.

The natural gas market that was previously restricted to incumbent suppliers was eventually opened to third party gas suppliers, called Shippers, ever since the Gas Supply (Amendment) Act 2016 came into force in January 2017. Even though, a total of 17 LNG importers and 12 Shippers have been granted licenses by Energy Commission to participate in the TPA, the market has seen only a handful of Shippers that are actively supplying gas through the pipeline infrastructure.

Being held behind “closed door”, the Roundtable provided a conducive platform for candid intercourse amongst parties directly and actively involved in TPA. “Now all the issues are out in the open”, a participant commented.

Moderated by Zahid Osman, a Council Member of MGA, the participants for the Roundtable were as follows;

Zahid Osman, MGA Council Member, as the Moderator during MGA Roundtable on TPA.

Role in TPA	Participant
Policymaker	Zaeidah Mohamed Esa Director of Energy Economic Planning Unit (EPU)
Regulator	Rumaizi Abdul Halim Deputy Director, Third Party Access Suruhanjaya Tenaga
Infrastructure Operator	Abdul Razak Saim Head of Business Dev. & Commercial PETRONAS Gas Bhd     Azlan Mohd Kordi Head of Regulatory Economics, Industry Development & Commercial Gas Malaysia Distribution Sdn Bhd
Incumbent Shippers	Khairuddin Khalik Chief Executive Officer PETRONAS Energy & Gas Trading       Shahrir Shariff Chief Executive Officer Gas Malaysia Energy & Services Sdn Bhd
Other Shippers	Sriram Narayanan General Manager, New Markets Asia Shell Energy Asia     Datuk Mohd Aqliff Shane Managing Director Petrolife Aero Sdn Bhd
Consumers	Steven Aroki Chairman of Energy & Utilities Committee Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM)

“We are pleased to witness the energetic and passionate dialogue at Roundtable, demonstrating that all parties involved are singular in their interest to ensure the success of the Third Party Access. We hope that the suggestions and recommendations raised during the dialogue will be considered and adopted by the concerned parties. We look forward to more importers and Shippers to participate in the TPA market; trading on willing buyer-willing seller basis and on a level playing field, thus providing competitive options to consumers”, Hazli Sham commented after successful conclusion of the Roundtable.

MGA will be compiling a report on issues and recommendation discussed during the Roundtable for the attention of the policymaker and regulator.

The Roundtable also provided wholesome insights into TPA and was indeed an “eye-opener” especially for the other 7 Importers & Shippers, mostly new, that attended the session as observers.

One participant commended MGA for being a proactive bridge between the government and industry players. MGA will continue to play its role the nation’s lead advocate for the natural gas in promoting engagement, discourse and dialogue with key stakeholders to develop a vibrant and sustainable gas industry fueling Malaysia’s socio-economic growth.