Consultations on common natural gas market in Eurasian Economic Union continue
Representatives of the relevant government agencies of the Eurasian Economic Union member states as well as oil and gas companies took part in the ninth session of the dedicated working group under the Advisory Committee for Oil and Gas of the Eurasian Economic Commission to discuss the draft document, the Commission's press service told BelTA .
Leonid Shenets, Director of the Energy Department of the Eurasian Economic Commission, chaired the session. The official reminded that setting up a common natural gas market in the Eurasian Economic Union is a priority in integration cooperation in energy matters between the EAEU member states.
"By the end of the year we will have to jointly develop rules for launching the market to meet expectations of the EAEU heads of state," said Leonid Shenets.
As a result of the discussion an agreement was reached on excluding natural gas storage services from the draft document. The sides agreed that tariffs on natural gas transportation services for participants of the common natural gas market need to be set in a non-discriminatory manner.
Participants of the session discussed ways of taking into account the natural gas delivery agreements that EAEU member states have signed in the course of legislation harmonization. The sides also discussed rules for exchange trading in natural gas on the common market of the Eurasian Economic Union. The Eurasian Economic Union's common natural gas market is expected to represent the entirety of trade and economic relations between commercial entities in the EAEU member states in matters relating to the transportation and deliveries of natural gas between the EAEU member states. In May 2016 the leaders of the EAEU member states - Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia - approved the concept for forming a common natural gas market. At present the Eurasian Economic Commission is busy preparing the program on setting up the common natural gas market with a list of concrete measures that need to be taken to implement the project. The document is supposed to be worked out and adopted at the level of the presidents of the EAEU member states by 1 January 2018. The measures the program will stipulate are supposed to be carried out by 1 January 2024.