The development of regional gas markets, together with further liberalization at a national level, is an important and practical step toward the eventual goal of a competitive single European gas market. With this in mind, in April 2006 the European Regulators’ Group for Electricity and Gas (ERGEG) launched a gas regional initiative (GRI) to push forward the development of regional markets in collaboration with industry participants, Member States, the European Commission, and other stakeholders. The GRI consists of four regional market projects (REMs): North-West, North, South, and South-South East. The gas REMs are the outcome of ERGEG’s November 2005 consultation paper and 2006 conclusion paper, which set out ERGEG’s views on the key issues preventing the development of competition and regional markets.

In this article from Gas Actual, the authors review and assess the potential and real obstacles to creating the South Gas Regional Initiative, a regional market project consisting of Spain, Portugal, and Southern France. The authors examine the ERGEG’s action plan, which sets out specific measures to be taken over the next few years in order to overcome current obstacles and to attain an increasingly liquid and competitive gas market in the region.

This article was published in Gas Actual, No. 101, December 2006.