Liberalisation is an important characteristic of the gas markets of the world, which means a challenge for the gas market players. Gas market liberalisation has lot of advances but it has also lot of risks. In this paper the effect of liberalisation on the gas markets are examined on the base of the experiences yielded in the USA and European Union. The liberalisation including each segment of the gas markets, is long and regulation requiring process. Monitoring the gas market processes is very important for the regulation authorities because of the interventions necessary in the suitable time. According to the experiences, liberalisation resulted in high cost reduction in the downstream part of the gas value chain.
The effect on the upstream sector is not unambiguous. To reach the aim of the liberalisation of the gas market - the reduction of the gas price - there is a need for a well-regulated competitive market with developed infrastructure and sufficient, secure supply.
The gas market liberalisation began in the 1980s in North America. Several other countries also stepped on the road of gas liberalisation, so Great Britain, the other countries of the EU, Australia etc. However in every country introducing the gas market liberalisation, big debates precede and accompany, respectively the opening of the gas market, the gas consumption countries having developed infrastructure try to form a competitive market. Therefore, it is reasonable to take the experiences of the countries leading in the liberalisation into account. Nevertheless, the liberalisation began twenty years ago in the USA, it can be often heard in the connection of the liberalised gas market operation that the available experiences are not yet enough to forecast the future events of the liberalised gas market. Liberalised markets develop dynamically; always new questions came to the fore, which have to be answered in the interest of the secure natural gas supply.
In our paper, after sketching the main characteristics and development trends of the natural gas markets of the world, we show the main characteristics of the liberalised gas markets. Through the examples of the USA and the EU, the most important effects of the liberalisation on the gas markets are summarised.
BLOCK 3 - - FORUM 19 401
Overview of world According to the different relevant forecasts, the use of natural gas increases in the fastest degree natural gas consumption and among the individual energy carriers in the energy use of the world. Nevertheless, it is a wide reserves known fact that the expansion of the natural gas consumption has already began to increase in last decades. The developme