As was the case with other industries that have been deregulated, natural gas deregulation
has resulted in competition which helps lower the cost of natural gas and increase customer choices.

Deregulation is the process of lessening the amount of government restrictions an oversight applied to private companies. The natural gas industry has been gradually deregulated over the past ten years.

Before deregulation, utilities charged their customers for all the necessary steps to get the
natural gas from the gas well to the customer's home or business. This included purchasing the natural gas, delivering it to the customer, measuring the customer's use,providing emergency service, and billing the customer.

One effect of deregulation has been that customers may now choose to purchase only part
of the full line of services that are offered by the utility. This ability to choose is called
unbundling. The complete package of services has been unbundled so that a customer can choose to separate the gas purchasing transaction from the delivery -- or transport -- transaction.

This report takes a look at the deregulation of the gas industries worldwide through a
country-wide analysis.


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Pages: 350
Publication Date: April 2009
Publisher: Energy Business Reports