MDPPACPB Regulations

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12. Prohibition of Anti-Competitive Technical or Capacity Barriers 
  1. Scope and General Duty 
No owner or operator of midstream or downstream petroleum infrastructure or 
facilities—including pipelines, storage terminals, jetties, bulk loading facilities, 
or other essential assets—shall impose technical requirements, capacity 
management practices, investment strategies, or disclosure practices that are 
not objectively necessary for safe, efficient, reliable, and transparent 
operation, where such practices have the effect or intent of excluding, 
deterring, or disadvantaging competitors. 
 
2. Objective Justification and Transparency Requirement 
All technical access criteria, design specifications, service thresholds, capacity 
allocation rules, and access terms must be: 
(a) transparent, clearly documented, publicly available, and accompanied 
by standard contract terms and conditions; 
(b) non-discriminatory, applying equally to affiliated and unaffiliated users; 
(c) objectively justified on verifiable safety, operational, environmental, 
efficiency, or legitimate commercial grounds; and 
(d) approved by the Authority where deviation from standard criteria is sought 
or challenged. 
 
3. Prohibited Conduct 
Without prejudice to other provisions of these Regulations, prohibited practices 
include: 
(a) Technical Barriers: 
(i) arbitrarily high minimum batch sizes or shipment volumes without operational 
justification; 
(ii) exclusive or non-standard specifications only affiliates can meet without 
legitimate safety/environmental rationale; 
(iii) undue delays in interconnection citing unsupported technical reviews or 
pretexts; 
(iv) excessive or redundant compliance documentation inconsistent with 
published standards. 
 
(b) Capacity Hoarding and Foreclosure: 
(i) intentionally withholding available capacity, delaying nominations, or 
limiting throughput to disadvantage competitors; 
(ii) pre-booking capacity without actual use or foreseeable need; 
(iii) repeated failure to utilise reserved capacity without justification; 
(iv) strategic underinvestment in maintenance or expansion to restrict market 
access. 
 
(c) Strategic Withholding and Underinvestment 
(i) strategic underinvestment in maintenance in facility or economically justify 
expansion for the purpose or effect of market foreclosure or exclusion; 
(ii) allow deterioration or operational bottlenecks to persist where feasible 
investment would remove the restriction.