European Communities - Seventh Report

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Here you can browse the report together with the Proceedings of the Committee. The published report was ordered by the House of Lords to be printed 18 November 1997.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

REPORT	Paragraph
PART 1 INTRODUCTION	1
The European Natural Gas Industry	1
Europe's natural gas supplies	2
The gas industries of the Member States	4
Take-or-pay contracts	6
Gas buyers and sellers	8
The Hydrocarbons Licensing Directive	9
The origins and current status of the EU Gas Directive	11
Structure of the Report	23
Acknowledgements	24
PART 2 VIEWS OF WITNESSES	25
Background to the Directive	25
Liberalisation in the United Kingdom	28
Positions of the Member States	32
Security of Supply	34
General responses to the draft Directive	36
Application to upstream production and competition in gas supply	46
Extent of market opening and thresholds for eligible customers	53
Take-or-pay contracts	62
Derogations for take-or-pay	67
Future take-or-pay contracts	72
Alternatives to take-or-pay	76
Take-or-pay and security of supply	79
Access to the gas network	82
Network access and public service obligations	86
Derogations for emergent markets and regions	88
Dispute resolution and the Commission's role	90
Transparency and Chinese walls	93
PART 3 OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE	98
General comments	98
Impact of the Directive on the UK gas market	101
Issues on which substantial agreement has already been reached	102
Regulated and Negotiated Access to Pipelines	103
Transparency of accounts and Chinese walls	104
Aspects of the Directive still under negotiation	105
Application of the Directive to upstream transmission pipelines	106
Extent of market opening and thresholds for eligible customers	107
Take-or-pay contracts and derogations	109
Recommendation	116
Appendix 1-Membership of Sub-Committee B
Appendix 2-List of witnesses
Appendix 3-Gas prices in the EU and the G7
Appendix 4-Letter from the Chairman of Sub-Committee B to Mr John Battle MP, Minister of State for Science, Energy and Industry
Appendix 5-Letter to the Chairman of Sub-Committee B from Mr John Battle MP, Minister of State for Science, Energy and Industry

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Prepared 27 November 1997