European gas market liberalisation: Are regulatory regimes moving towards convergence?

The success of European gas liberalisation in the first part of the 2000s can best be described as "mixed". This study of gas liberalisation in the "old" member states by Nadine Haase of the University of Twente shows that the discretion allowed by the EU Gas Directives has led to divergent regulatory regimes which have fallen substantially short of what could be considered "best practice". By 2006, eight member states were moving towards best practice, but three had shown only minimal convergence. As carbon reduction and security of supply move up the energy policy agenda, the extent to which policy can continue to prioritise liberalisation and competition in energy markets, is uncertain.

Bottom-up Electricity Reform Using Industrial Captive Generation: A Case Study of Gujarat, India

Adequate financing for electricity supply has been a persistent problem in developing countries. The conventional response has been to create competitive electricity markets by breaking up vertically integrated power companies and encourage new entry into the generation sector. This paper argues using a case study from Gujarat, India, for an alternative approach - leverage the captive power capacity (self-generation) of industry to reshape the generation and distribution sectors from the bottom-up. Captive power is well positioned to both add capacity to systems struggling to meet demand and increase competition in the power market.

Security of European Gas Supplies - a survey of gas industry opinion from the FLAME Conference, Amsterdam, March 4, 2008

The results of a poll of gas industry professionals at the FLAME Conference in Amsterdam reveal far less concern about dependence on gas imports, and specifically dependence on Russian gas supplies, than is found in most political and media commentary. 60% of respondents were either "not at all" or "a little" worried about Europe's increasing gas import dependence. The same percentage believed that, of the non-European sources of gas, Russia would be the most reliable supplier over the next five years.

Prospects of the DME Oman Crude Oil Futures Contracts

In this comment, Bassam Fattouh re-assesses the prospects of DME's Oman Crude Oil Futures Contract by focusing on three aspects: retroactive pricing, physical delivery and liquidity. He argues that in terms of providing better tools for risk management, enhancing price transparency and constituting the basis of a new benchmark, the DME's contract has not made any significant breakthroughs and that so far the main success of the DME contract has been in providing a flexible way to access physical Oman crude oil.

Cost Efficiency and the Tradable Sulphur Permit Scheme in the US Electricity Generating Industry

This presentation was given by Lindsay Tuthill at the 27 February 2008 Productivity Workshop at the Department of Economics, University of Oxford.