AGL is one of Australia’s largest retailers of natural gas. Natural gas is used by:

• Households for heating, cooking and hot water; and
• Commercial and industrial businesses for heating, hot water and other industrial processes.

AGL currently sells around 190 PJ of natural gas to customers in Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales (1 MJ is approximately equivalent to the energy required to boil water for 14 cups of tea!).

AGL is a retailer of natural gas but does not own the pipeline infrastructure that is used to transport gas to the end customer. AGL sources gas from a number of areas:

• Cooper Basin: AGL has contracts in place to buy gas from the Cooper Basin in South Australia.
• Bowen and Surat Basin: In addition to owning 27.6% of the Queensland Gas Company, AGL purchases gas from the Bowen and Surat Basins in Queensland.
• Gippsland Basin: AGL has contracts in place to buy gas from the Gippsland and Otway Basins offshore in southern Australia.
• Sydney Basin: AGL has both gas reserves and contracts in place in the Sydney Basin.

Burning natural gas produces less greenhouse gas emissions than other fossil fuels. For each GJ of energy produced, natural gas combustion emits around 50 kg of greenhouse gases. For each GJ of energy produced, coal combustion emits around 90 kg of greenhouse gases.