What are gas release and contract release programmes?
These are measures to ensure that new suppliers can buy enough gas to build a supply business. They have sometimes been imposed by national authorities (U.K., Italy), in other cases they have been imposed by the EC in the context of merger control. Gas release programmes require incumbents to sell defined volumes of gas. These are likely to be most effective if they run over a number of years, and are combined with release of network capacity. Contract release programmes require the transfer of some of the incumbent’s existing gas purchase contracts to new buyers. This kind of programme may be effective if there are entrant suppliers able to assume the risks involved in traditional gas purchase contracts.
