Tendencias recientes del sector del gas natural

The past ten years have been characterised by an intense international debate on models of operation for traditionally monopolistic industries such as electricity and natural gas. The European commission is making a considerable effort to create an internal energy market, and the first fruit of that effort can be seen in the directives with common standards intended to create an internal market for electricity and gas. A new draft directive has recently been put forward which aims firmly to eliminate barriers to entry into these sectors and to create a market where competition between different players is possible. Spain is following this same tendency: with the approval of the Hydrocarbons Act regulatory changes have been introduced which are markedly liberalising and pro-competition. However at both the European and Spanish levels various structural problems persist which may make the rate of change significantly slower than proposed by legislators. Both these matters are discussed in outline in this article.