Development of Competitive Natural Gas Markets in the United States
The United States has the world's largest natural gas market. Fifteen years of deregulation have delivered significant gains to consumers in the form of lower prices and more services. The experience shows that liberalizing wholesale gas price...
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| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/1998/04/693642/development-competitive-natural-gas-markets-united-states http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11557 |
| Summary: | The United States has the world's
largest natural gas market. Fifteen years of deregulation
have delivered significant gains to consumers in the form of
lower prices and more services. The experience shows that
liberalizing wholesale gas prices and the bulk supply of
natural gas frees market forces in segments where
competition is feasible. But regulators must focus on
improving the regulation of pipeline transportation and
minimizing its distortive effect on competitive gas markets.
Introducing flexibility into pricing and other conditions of
transportaion contracts such as delivery locations or the
balancing of gas shipments and standardizing pipeline
operations promote more efficient use of pipelines and
benefit all industry participants. The U.S. experience also
shows the important role of gas marketers and spot markets
in increasing the efficiency of gas transactions and prices.
Deregulation of the U.S. gas industry is far from complete,
however. The most important task, and the biggest challenge
for regulators, remains the deregulation of retail gas
markets in individual states. |
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