OREANDA-NEWS. July 26, 2013. Deputy Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) Anatoly Golomolzin chaired a meeting of FAS Expert Council on developing competition on the gas markets devoted to the problems of the access system to the gas-distribution networks.

Experts discussed a draft Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation “On Ensuring Non-Discriminatory Access to the Gas-Distribution Networks in the Russian Federation” devised by FAS.

Starting the meeting, Deputy Head of FAS Unit for Gas and Coal Industry, Alexander Dolgikh discussed the main changes introduced by the draft Decree, including:

- Evolution of the key concepts and new definitions (for instance, “Long-term gas transportation service”, “Technically possible capacity”, etc)

- Dividing regulation into two blocks of legal relations

- Essential conditions of the contracts for rendering gas-transportation services

- Essential conditions of the contracts for connection.

Members of the Expert Council supported the concept of the draft Decree acknowledging the need to modernize the existing system of access of organizations to the gas-distribution networks.

The Expert Council recommended refining the draft Decree in view of the experts’ comments, particularly, in the part of unifying some of its provisions in line with the current norms and rules in the field of gas-distribution, and present the new concept of the draft Decree to the expert community for consideration.

“The existing law on gas transportation and distribution by the gas-distribution networks does not fully reflect the current relations on the markets and is disengaged. Thus, there is a long-overdue necessity to adjust it in accordance with the present-day realities”, said the Head of FAS Department for Control over Fuel-and Energy Complex, Dmitry Makhonin. “We are glad that market participants supported our initiative. We also hope that the draft Decree will not cause insurmountable disagreements from other bodies and will be passed promptly”.

When completed, the draft Decree (in a new edition) will be published at the official FAS web-site.