Gas Act, 2001 (Act No. 48 of 2001)Chapter I : Definitions and Objects1. Definitions |
In this Act, unless the context indicates otherwise—
"chief executive officer"
means the person appointed in terms of section 11(1);
"customer"
means a person purchasing gas, or purchasing transmission, storage or distribution or liquefaction or re-gasification services;
"Department"
means the Department of Minerals and Energy;
"distribution"
means the distribution of bulk gas supplies and the transportation thereof by pipelines with a general operating pressure of more than 2 bar gauge and less than 15 bar gauge or by pipelines with such other operating pressure as the National Energy Regulator may permit according to criteria prescribed by regulation to points of ultimate consumption or to reticulation systems, or to both points of ultimate consumption and reticulation systems, and any other activity incidental thereto, and "distribute" and "distributing" have corresponding meanings;
[Definition substituted by section 15, item 2(2) of the Schedule, of the National Energy Regulator Act, 2004 (Act No. 40 of 2004)]
"distribution company"
means any person distributing gas;
"eligible customer"
means a customer who in the prescribed manner may buy gas directly from suppliers without the intervention of a distribution company;
"gas"
means all hydrocarbon gases transported by pipeline, including natural gas, artificial gas, hydrogen rich gas, methane rich gas, synthetic gas, coal bed methane gas, liquefied natural gas, compressed natural gas, re-gasified liquefied natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas or any combination thereof;
"Gas Regulator"
means the National Energy Regulator established by section 3 of the National Energy Regulator Act, 2004;
[Definition substituted by section 15, item 2(2) of the Schedule, of the National Energy Regulator Act, 2004 (Act No. 40 of 2004)]
"licensee’’
means any person holding a licence granted by the Gas Regulator in terms of this Act;
"liquefaction"
means converting natural gas from a gaseous state to a liquid state;
"mine"
means "mine" as defined in the Minerals Act, 1991 (Act No. 31 of 1991);
"Minister"
means the Minister of Minerals and Energy;
"person"
includes any organ of state as defined in section 239 of the Constitution;
"prescribed"
means prescribed by regulation or by rules;
"price"
means the charge for gas to a distributor, reticulator or final customer;
"production"
means the recovery, processing, treating and gathering of gas from wells in the earth up to the boundary of the mine, or the manufacture of synthetic or artificial gas, or the manufacturing of any gases in the refining process up to the boundary of the factory, and any other activity incidental thereto, and "produce" and "producing" have corresponding meanings;
"re-gasification"
means converting liquefied natural gas to a gaseous state at a re-gasification plant;
"regulation"
means a regulation made under section 34(1);
"reticulation"
means the division of bulk gas supplies and the transportation of bulk gas by pipelines with a general operating pressure of no more than 2 bar gauge to points of ultimate consumption, and any other activity incidental thereto, and "reticulate" and "reticulating" have corresponding meanings;
"rule"
means by a rule made under section 34(3);
"service"
means any service relating to the transmission, distribution, storage, trading, liquefaction or re-gasification of gas;
"specification"
means the chemical and physical composition, calorific values and Wobbe Index of the gas that conforms to recognised international standards and the pressure of the gas at point of entry to shared systems;
"storage"
means the holding of gas as a service and any other activity incidental thereto, but excludes storage of gas in pipelines which are used primarily for the transmission and distribution of gas;
"storage company"
means any person storing gas;
"tariff"
means the charge for gas services to any customer;
"this Act"
includes the regulations;
"trading"
means the purchase and sale of gas as a commodity by any person and any services associated therewith, excluding the construction and operation of transmission, storage and distribution systems, and "trading services" has a corresponding meaning;
"transmission"
means the bulk transportation of gas by pipeline supplied between a source of supply and a distributor, reticulator, storage company or eligible customer, or any other activity incidental thereto, and "transmit" and "transmitting" have corresponding meanings;
"transmission company"
means any person transmitting gas;
"uncommitted capacity"
means such capacity determined by the Gas Regulator in a liquefaction, re-gasification, transmission, storage or distribution facility as is not required to meet contractual obligations.