NSW Government
NSW Climate and Energy Action

Pipelines and Gas Supply Regulations

The submission period is now closed. Thank you to all who participated.

A man and a woman wearing high vis workwear and helmets walking near a gas pipeline
Credit: APA Group
 

Key information

The NSW Government has approved:

The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water's response to submissions is available here:

Response to submissions

We have published a response to submissions made to the consultation on the Pipeline and Gas Regulations and the draft Authority to Survey and Pipelines Compulsory Acquisition Process Guidelines.

The response outlines what we heard from stakeholders and how we have changed the Regulations and Guidelines in response to feedback received. The response is available here:

We also held the following public information sessions reporting back what we heard during the consultation:

  • In person information session with community in Maitland on 16 December 2025
  • Public online information session that included community and industry stakeholders on 17 December 2025.

Final Pipelines regulation and guidelines for engaging with landowners to access and acquire land for pipeline projects

The NSW Government has approved changes to the NSW Pipelines regulation. The final regulation is available on the NSW Legislation website:

We are aiming to finalise the Gas Regulation in 2026.

The Minister for Energy has also approved the:

Proposed changes to Gas Supply and Pipelines regulations

The NSW Pipelines and Gas Supply laws regulate the reliable supply and distribution of gas and the safe construction and operation of gas networks and pipelines in NSW. The Department engaged with the community on proposed changes to the gas supply and pipelines legislation:

  1. Gas Supply [Safety and Network Management] Amendment Regulation 2025
  2. Pipelines Amendment [Miscellaneous] Regulation 2025

Draft guidelines for engaging with landowners to access and acquire land for pipeline projects

Under the Pipelines Act 1967, land and easements can be accessed and compulsorily acquired for pipeline projects. To increase the transparency and consistency of these processes, the department released 2 draft guidelines for community feedback:

  1. Authority to Survey Guideline: Engaging with landholders to survey land for a pipeline in NSW
  2. Pipelines Compulsory Acquisition Process Guideline: Compulsory acquisition of land for a pipeline in NSW. 

These guidelines are the processes that pipeline proponents are expected to follow to engage with landholders. The guidelines do not change the law, but are intended to improve governance and implementation of the law.

Community and stakeholder engagement

We recognise that these new regulatory changes and guidelines will be of keen interest to landholders and communities along proposed pipeline routes. 

We invited interested community members and landholders to participate in 3 in-person forums and 2 online webinars where we took participants through the regulation amendments and the draft guidelines. You can view the presentations and the notes from these sessions here.

Key documents

Consultation process: Fact Sheet (PDF, 90.5KB)

Community forums and webinars

Notes from community forums: 

Proposed changes to Gas Supply and Pipelines regulations

Draft guidelines for engaging with landowners to access and acquire land for pipeline projects

Next steps

Submissions are no longer being accepted for this consultation.

In the first half of 2026 we will publish further changes to the Pipeline and Gas Supply regulations and new guidelines. These relate to matters of abandonment, suspension and decommissioning.

More information

See here for more information on the NSW Government's role in energy networks.

If you would like to contact the NSW Government project team, please reach out to [email protected]