An American Model for the EU Gas Market?

摘要

It is generally believed that the American model is not suitable for Europe, yet North America is theonly large and working competitive gas market in the world. The paper shows how its model could beadapted as a target for market design within the European institutional framework.It starts from analysis of the main peculiar economic features of the gas transportation industry, whichshould underpin any efficient model. After the Third Package is properly implemented the EU willshare several building blocks of the American model: effective unbundling of transportation andsupply; regulated tariffs which, for long distance transportation, are in fact largely related to capacityand distance; investments based mostly on industry’s initiative and resources, and the related decisionsare increasingly made after open and public processes.Yet Europe needs to harmonize tariff regulation criteria, which could be achieved through amonitoring process. National separation of main investment decisions should be overcome, possiblyby organising a common platform where market forces and public authorities interact with privatesuppliers to require existing and develop new capacity, whereas industry competitively offers itssolutions. Such platform would allow for long term capacity reservation, subject to caps andcongestion management provisions. Auctions and possibly market coupling would play an importantrole in the allocation of short term capacity but a limited one in long term.Market architecture and the organisation of hubs would also be developed mostly by market forcesunder regulatory oversight. The continental nature of the market suggests a likely concentration oftrading in a very limited number of main markets, whereas minor markets would have a limited roleand would be connected to major ones, with price differences reflecting transportation costs andmarket conditions. Excessive interference or pursuit of political goals in less than transparent waysinvolves the risk of slower liquidity development and higher market fragmentation.With this view as a background, regulatory work aimed at completing the European market should bebased on ensuring the viability of interconnections between current markets and on the establishmentof common platforms and co-ordinated tariff systems, fostering the conditions for upstream andtransportation capacity development.