Regulatory options for cross-border gas supply security

• Main Author: Hoang, Huong T. L.
• Other Authors: Dow, Stephen
• Published: University of Dundee 2016
• Subjects: 333.79
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.716211

When the country needs gas for the consumption and there is no or insufficient indigenous supply, the question of securing cross-border gas supply arises. The concern about cross-border gas supply with the right quantity at the right price to the right place at the right time for the importing country’s consumption in totality necessitates the legal engagement and regulatory exercise that enable physical gas supply realisation within the affordability constraints of the gas consuming country. Grounding on the fundamental principles of sovereignty, freedom of contract, property rights, and reciprocity, this research explores the regulatory options in targeting availability and affordability of cross-border gas supply. This study elaborates the regulatory design in three-tier interaction: amongst the governments (of the consuming and producing, and possible transit, countries), between the government and the market players, and amongst the market players. The findings of this research are that (i) the regulatory design with oversight power exercised from production to consumption supports the control of gas supply realisation; (ii) the approach of collaborative exercise in legal engagement and performance responds to the condition of codependence and eases the affordability constraint of the consuming country in realising cross-border gas supply; and (iii) the regulatory component of imperative requirement provides the government with direct control over the gas supply performance of the market players.