欧盟天然气产业链结构改革措施及效果

自20世纪80年代以来,欧盟通过法律手段对天然气产业链进行结构改革,取得了较好的成效,其经验可以为中国所借鉴。欧盟的措施包括:①为去除上中下游一体化而引入的解除捆绑措施;②为推进改革进程而设定不同阶段的市场开放程度;③为使管网使用者获得无歧视的管输服务而采取的第三方准入机制;④为促进双边交易及提供高效的管输服务,建立虚拟交易点作为天然气买卖双方(亦为管网使用者)交易平台,并制定一系列管网规则。所取得的成效包括:①解除捆绑及第三方准入的实施,使得更多市场主体参与到欧盟天然气进口及批发环节,也促进了终端用户与进口商及生产商的直接交易;②虚拟交易点等平台的建立,促进了天然气短期市场的发展,在交易所进行的天然气现货及期货合约交易,进一步增加了天然气的市场流动性;③在短期市场形成的竞争性天然气价格,为天然气长协定价向"气—气"挂钩转变提供了必要的挂钩气价;④进口商和批发商在下游以"气—气"竞争气价卖出天然气,倒逼其购气时也要求采取"气—气"挂钩的长协定价方式,油与气可替代性的减弱是转变的另一因素。

Structural reform of EU natural gas industry chain and its effects

Since the 1980s, the European Union has initiated the structural reform of natural gas industry chain with legal means. ,gained rather satisfactory achievement and their experiences are of referential value to China's gas industry chain. The EU measures taken include:①the unbundling measure introduced to remove the integration of upstream, midstream and downstream; ②different degrees of market openness established for the purpose of speeding up the reform process; ③the third party access adopted to make the pipeline network users to obtain pipeline transportation services without discrimination; and ④ establishing virtual trading points as a trade platform for both buyer and sellers (the pipeline transportation users) for the purpose of promoting the bilateral trade and providing efficient pipeline transportation services and formulating a series of pipeline network rules. Remarkable effects were brought about by these measures. For example, the implementation of unbundling measures and the third party access make more market players participate in the import and the wholesale of EU natural gas and also facilitate the direct trading between the final users and the importers/producers. The establishment of virtual trading points facilitates the development of short-term gas markets, and the spot and futures contracts which are traded in the natural gas exchanges further increase the liquidity of the natural gas market. The competitive price formed from the short-term markets provides the necessary pegged price for the transformation from the long-term contract pricing to "gas-to-gas" pricing; importers and wholesalers sell the natural gas based on the "gas-to-gas" price in the downstream markets, which force them to require the long-term contract pricing mechanism of "gas-to-gas"; the substitution of oil and natural gas has been weakened gradually, which is another factor that causes the change.