[5] As Victoria's largest supplier of natural gas the aftermath was considerable with hundreds of thousands of homes affected.

Esso was also found guilty by jury verdict of 11 offences under the Occupational Health and Safety Act and fined $2 million.

Scaffolders, electricians, boilermakers and fitters were employed to maintain gas equipment up until 2017 by Esso contractor UGL in a joint venture with KAEFER Integrated Services, a German engineering and maintenance corporation.

UGL won the contract outright in 2017 and offered the workforce their roles back on reduced pay and conditions under a new enterprise agreement through its subsidiary MTCT Services.

Unions representing the workers allege the enterprise agreement was not negotiated with the Victorian workforce, making it unrepresentative.

[17] ExxonMobil executives were due to appear before the Australian Parliament's Senate Inquiry into Corporate Tax Avoidance in early 2018.