Spain: CNMC asks major Gas companies to act as ‘market creators’

Spain’s market and competition regulator, the CNMC, has issued a new report on methodology which establishes a series of obligations on Grupo Gas Natural and Endesa, the country’s dominant agents in the Natural Gas sector, requiring them to act as Market Creators.

There is currently one single company (Gunvor International) which voluntarily acts as a market creator, operating an agreement with the Iberian Gas Market, MIBGAS. This arrangement covers the first half of 2017.

The new requirements would seek to increase liquidity in the natural gas market by establishing that, should there be no operators willing to voluntarily create this liquidity, or if their contributions prove insufficient, the Government should be able to create obligations for market creation on dominant agents in the sector.

Dominant agents acting as market creators will also be required to publicly submit their simultaneous sales and purchases offers for a pre-determined quantity of gas, subject to a set range of prices. In this sense, the CNMC has identified Grupo Gas Natural Fenosa and Grupo Endesa as the dominant players in the market, as calculated for the 2015 fiscal period.

Full Content: CNMC

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