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Vertical natural gas transportation capacity, upstream commodity contracts and EU competition law

Abstract

This EU law study focuses on the application of EU competition law to long-term natural gas capacity reservation and commodity contracts, two issues which pose significant challenges for general EU competition law. For the long-term capacity reservation contracts, these complications concern the pre-liberation contracts or 'legacy contracts' as they are often called. The issue is further complicated by the question of the 'right of first refusal', which is one of the key issues for Russia in the context of the Energy Charter Treaty. For the long-term commodity contracts, this includes the foreclosure effect of these contracts and dependence on external producers with a preference for this type of contract. In essence, both questions present a difficult trade-off between introduction of competition and securing EU energy supply. Security of supply is also significant for this study as the use of long-term commodity agreements is often substantiated through a security of supply argument. Sometimes this argument refers to a link between a contract and a particular investment, sometimes it refers to a more general (positive) security of supply effect.The objective of this study is to examine how EU competition law should be applied to long-term natural gas capacity reservation and commodity contracts.  More>>
Authors:
Publication Date:
Jul 01, 2010
Product Type:
Thesis/Dissertation
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Thesis or Dissertation; TH: Thesis (LL.D.)
Subject:
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY AND ECONOMY; LEGISLATION; REGULATIONS; INTERNATIONAL LAWS; EUROPEAN UNION; ENERGY; NATURAL GAS; TRADE; TREATIES; COMPETITION
OSTI ID:
1008049
Research Organizations:
Helsinki Univ. (Finland). Faculty of Law, European Law
Country of Origin:
Finland
Language:
English
Other Identifying Numbers:
Other: ISBN 978-952-92-7456-7; TRN: FI1103017
Availability:
Available in fulltext at http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-92-7456-7
Submitting Site:
FI
Size:
337 p. pages
Announcement Date:
Mar 14, 2011

Citation Formats

Talus, K. Vertical natural gas transportation capacity, upstream commodity contracts and EU competition law. Finland: N. p., 2010. Web.
Talus, K. Vertical natural gas transportation capacity, upstream commodity contracts and EU competition law. Finland.
Talus, K. 2010. "Vertical natural gas transportation capacity, upstream commodity contracts and EU competition law." Finland.
@misc{etde_1008049,
title = {Vertical natural gas transportation capacity, upstream commodity contracts and EU competition law}
author = {Talus, K}
abstractNote = {This EU law study focuses on the application of EU competition law to long-term natural gas capacity reservation and commodity contracts, two issues which pose significant challenges for general EU competition law. For the long-term capacity reservation contracts, these complications concern the pre-liberation contracts or 'legacy contracts' as they are often called. The issue is further complicated by the question of the 'right of first refusal', which is one of the key issues for Russia in the context of the Energy Charter Treaty. For the long-term commodity contracts, this includes the foreclosure effect of these contracts and dependence on external producers with a preference for this type of contract. In essence, both questions present a difficult trade-off between introduction of competition and securing EU energy supply. Security of supply is also significant for this study as the use of long-term commodity agreements is often substantiated through a security of supply argument. Sometimes this argument refers to a link between a contract and a particular investment, sometimes it refers to a more general (positive) security of supply effect.The objective of this study is to examine how EU competition law should be applied to long-term natural gas capacity reservation and commodity contracts. The central argument of this thesis is that long-term contracts, both upstream commodity contracts and the transportation capacity reservation contracts, have a foreclosing effect. Because of the significant legal, economic and political aspects of long-term upstream commodity contracts, the foreclosure should be addressed through restrictions on the use of capacity reservation contracts. (orig.)}
place = {Finland}
year = {2010}
month = {Jul}
}