Brussels, 03/05/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has closed the last chapter of the Marathon inquiry further to commitments proposed by the companies Gaz de France and Ruhrgas to improve third party access to their gas transport networks and to allow customers in France and Germany to benefit from liberalisation of the gas markets. The Marathon dossier thus reaches its conclusion, agreements having already been concluded with the other operators pointed at, namely BEB, Thyssengas and Gasunie. We recall that the Marathon affair had been opened following a complaint filed by the Norwegian subsidiary of Marathon, which accused several gas operators of refusing it access to their networks, as stipulated by the 1998 gas directive.
Briefly, the commitments proposed by Gaz de France were: - gradual reduction of the number of tariff areas to reach two areas in January 2009 as opposed to seven at the present time. This initiative will facilitate access to new entrants by reducing the cost of transport when several areas must be crossed; - the marketing, as of January 2005, of an offer to convert gas H (high calorific value) into gas B (low calorific value). The measure will allow those using law calorific value gas to have easier access to competitive gas; - a programme for the temporary availability of gas in the southern part of France where there is currently no competition, as of January 2005 for three years. This operation will facilitate the entry to the southern France market of Gaz de France competitors. The French group has also undertaken to take various measures intended to improve transparency, the processing of requests for access to the network and the management of bottlenecks.
Ruhrgas has for its part suggested: - setting in place a new regime that will allow senders to reserve gas transport capacities separately at the entry and exit points without having to keep to the fictitious contractual route between the point where the gas entered the system to the point where gas is withdrawn from the system; - introducing six tariff areas that will be reduced to 4 in May 2006; - extending the new entry/exist system beyond its own network; - creating balancing areas which will allow senders to be more competitive in the Ruhrgas transport zone; - setting in place on-line balancing services. Like Gaz de France, Ruhrgas will also improve transparency, the processing of requests for access to the network and the management of bottlenecks. Both companies will publish the details of these commitments on their websites.