ENTSOG GRIP BEMIP 2014-2023 / Main Report

Image courtesy of Gasum Oy

LEGAL FRAMEWORK

The Natural Gas Market Act that entered into force in 2000 has implemented Direc- tive 98 / 30 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 June 1998 con- cerning common rules for the internal market in natural gas (DIR-30). The Directive allows Finland to deviate from the regulations concerning the deregulation of the natural gas market as long as the country has only one principal supplier of natural gas, because Finland has not been connected to the natural gas network of any other EU Member State. Due to this, the Finnish natural gas market has not been deregulated in the literal sense of the word. Only the so-called secondary market in natural gas has been deregulated, and the deregulation concerns only parties that meet certain require- ments. Users or retailers of natural gas, who purchase over 5mcm of natural gas per year, whose metering is based on remote reading and whose pricing has been agreed upon after the Natural Gas Market Act entered into force can participate in the operation of the secondary market. A special market place managed by Kaasupörssi Oy has been founded for trading in the secondary market. The Energy Market Authority supervises compliance with the Natural Gas Market Act and promotes the operation of a competitive natural gas market. The Natural Gas Market Act will be revised and is planned to be implemented by the end of 2015. The revision will implement the Gas Directives of the Third Energy Package for the internal EU gas and electricity market to the Finnish legislation. Among other topics, the revision will present the unbundling requirements and the responsibilities of LNG terminal operators.

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