Gaz Metropolitain's experience in regards to transmission access

The natural gas industry in Canada is briefly reviewed as it applies to the sale of transported gas in Quebec. The deregulation of the industry which occurred in 1985 brought many changes to the relationships among natural gas consumers, suppliers, transmission companies, and distribution utilities. It is noted that only the producers' natural gas sale price has been deregulated, not the rates of transmission companies or distributors. Deregulation offered two possibilities for natural gas users in Quebec: the client can contract a transmission service between the Alberta (source of supply) and Quebec borders, separately from contracting a delivery service from Gaz Metropolitain, the company supplying the vast majority of natural gas in Quebec; or the client can contract those two services from Gaz Metropolitain who then gathers the gas at the Alberta border. The adoption of Gaz Metropolitain services to meet the need for transmission access are discussed in the areas of supply contracts, and services offered (buy/sell, rate unbundling, delivery). The opportunities and risks for the customer are assessed in the areas of costs, speculation on transportation capacity, operational flexibility, and the possiblity of unused capacities. Opportunities and issues for the distributor include maintenance of client satisfaction, shortening of the duration of contracts, maintenance of the role of the distributor in natural gas sales, take-or-pay commitments, rate unbundling, accounting methods, inventories, and pricing