[en] The fourth article in a series about changes in the European natural gas market focuses on Russia, a country with gigantic potential reserves (216,000 billion m³) and a production unequalled in the world (780.4 billion m³ in 1992 in the Russian Federation), but also with enormous economic and technical problems. The question is what role Russia is able to play in the European natural gas supply. Attention is paid to the organizational structure in former Soviet Union regarding the natural gas industry, the environmental effects of exploration and exploitation, the need for foreign capital, and the disappointing progress of the 1991 Energy Charter. On a short term the infrastructure must be improved. Also the conflicts on the price of natural gas transport between the transfer countries Ukraine, Slovenia and Czechoslovakia and the West-European clients must be solved. 1 fig., 7 ills., 2 tabs

[en] Thirty four years ago the natural gas field Slochteren in Groningen, Netherlands made the Netherlands into an outstanding natural gas country. Last summer, exactly half of the original 2680 trillion m³ of natural gas has been extracted. According to the projections of the Dutch Gasunie the Dutch gas reserves will be about depleted after another thirty four years. To guarantee continuity of the natural gas supply the natural gas will have to become more expensive. Also considerable investments in storage capacity are needed. Comments and opinions of experts regarding the future of the Dutch natural gas market are presented. 2 figs., 14 ills

[en] This is the third article in a series on the developments in the European natural gas market. Attention is paid to positive and negative impacts of a liberalized energy distribution market, based on experiences with TPA in the USA and in Great Britain

[en] At the moment the use telemetering, i.e. remote recording of natural gas, water and electricity consumption at small-scaled consumers, is more expensive than the use of human meter readers. There are, however, some advantages to this modern technique, allowing the meters to be read far more frequently than once a year at virtually the same cost, such as steering of energy consumption and alarm functions. It is expected that telemetering systems for small-scaled consumers will not be applied widely before the year 2000. 2 figs., 12 ills

[en] Researchers at the Netherlands Energy Research Foundation (ECN) and the National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection (RIVM) project that fossil fuel prices will rise only gradually in the next century. They also expect the gas price mainly to follow the oil price. A stringent global climate policy will do very little to change that. The analysis shows that fossil fuel prices during the next century will depend mainly on the cost of extracting the various conventional and non conventional oil reserves in the world, and by the strategies of OPEC and their allies

[en] In a series of articles, a close look is taken at some foreign newcomers on the Dutch energy market. The second article features UK-based Centrica and Vattenfall from Sweden. Centrica was established early in 1997 when British Gas was split up. BG took the transmission network and all foreign activities, whilst Centrica got the responsibility for the domestic trading activities, the Morecambe gas fields and contracts with British gas producers. Old problems were solved and Centrica could focus on its ambition, namely to be 'the consumer's first choice of energy supply and services'. This seems to be successful thanks to a low-tariff guarantee (two million new customers in one year) and the supply of services such as heating and security systems, mortgages and insurance. For Sweden-based Vattenfall, originally producer of hydroelectricity, production became less important. The focus is now on the supply of added value. For large customers this means managing their energy supply and assistance in energy-efficient operation; for small consumers Vattenfall invests in new products and forms of marketing. A rapid extension of its customer portfolio, e.g. by international takeovers and collaboration, is required to spread R and D costs

[en] In a series of articles, a close look is taken at some foreign newcomers on the Dutch energy market. In this 11th and final article attention is paid to the USA-based gas and electricity trading company Dynegy

[en] The Dutch Natural Gas Act tries to deregulate the gas market without jeopardizing natural gas revenues. A compromise which, according to the new gas traders, leaves insufficient room for fair competition with Gasunie. Because the Dutch Government opted for a system of negotiated access, Gasunie as the operator of the Dutch gas transmission system is free to set transmission prices all by itself. For this reason, Gasunie replaced the old gas pricing system by the so-called Commodity Services System (CSS). Gas, gas transmission and (related) services are now charged separately. There has been some criticism, however, on the way Gasunie applies the system in practice, for instance the dependence of transmission prices on distance and the CSS price level. Despite all these barriers the new gas traders have succeeded in slowly enticing some customers away from Gasunie. The former monopolist, however, is not really worried about these developments. It is actively involved in setting up sales activities abroad and for the time being, is not planning to lower its prices for competitive reasons

[en] In a deregulated gas market network, operation will become an independent business, that can even be used to make profit. In this part of the series on the liberalization of the natural gas market attention is paid to network operators. There appear not to be any changes for the operators of large offshore transmission pipelines. However, there will be some impact on the transmission system of Gasunie (Dutch natural gas trading company). According to the new Dutch Natural Gas Bill Gasunie has to publish separate accounts of its transmission activities. For energy distribution companies a legal separation of network activities is not compulsory. Natural gas network operators have to develop a number of new duties. A new information distribution system is required to quickly match supply and demand. Also, distribution companies have to set distribution tariffs. But the biggest change for network operators is that network operation and maintenance are no longer exclusively aimed at operational reliability and safety, but also at profitability

[en] Some facts about the Norwegian natural gas and oil industry are presented. In 1995 the industries took 12.5% of GNP and no less than 47.6% of export revenues. The use of natural gas in Norway is low. In 1996 Norway exported 37.9 billion m³ of natural gas. It is planned to double that volume within the next 10 years. Therefore, a strategic alliance between two major foreign competitors (Gasunie in the Netherlands and Gazprom in the Russian Federation) was not met with enthusiasm. The three most important companies in the Norwegian oil and gas industry are Statoil, Norsk Hydro, and Saga Petroleum. Overall turnover of the sector in 1994 was 40.6 billion Dutch guilders. Some 17,500 people are directly employed by the sector. 5 ills., 5 tabs