In 1993, the year the Portuguese natural gas project lifted up, Portugal had no backbone high pressure natural gas pipeline, storage and other infrastructures. From 1993 onwards, such infrastructures were built and natural gas became one of the most important sources of energy used in Portugal.
In the period between, 2000 and 2011, the natural gas demand increased 10% per year, and in 2015 the gas consumption, registered an increase of 16%.
Until 2006 the promotion of natural gas and the development of the system’s main infrastructures were handled by the Galp group companies, Transgás – Sociedade Portuguesa de Gás Natural, S.A. (“Transgás”) and GDP – Gás de Portugal, SGPS, S.A. (“GDP”), under concession agreements entered into with the Portuguese State.
The public service concession for the import, transmission and supply of natural gas through the high pressure pipeline, was granted to Transgás, and the public service concession for the distribution of natural gas through regional pipeline networks, was granted to six different companies, held by the GDP group.
However, the Decree-Law no. 30/2006 of 15 February 2006 (“Gas System Law”) transposed Directive 2003/55/EC, implementing common rules for the internal market.
The most important measures established by the Gas System Law were (i) the creation of a National Natural Gas Distribution Network (RNDGN), licensed or licensed to several operators, to guarantee non-discriminatory and transparent access to the network infrastructures of Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) and RNDGN terminals, (ii) the legal unbundling between the network and infrastructure operators of the National Natural Gas System (SNGN) and the marketers, and (iii) the creation the figure of the natural gas supplier and the last resort supplier.
The Gas System Law principles were specified by Decree-Law 140/2006, of 26 July 2006 (“Gas Regulatory Law”), with new rules for the exercise of transmission, operation of storage of the LNG facilities, and distribution and supply services.
As a result of these changes, the natural gas sector was unbundled, and is currently divided into several activities, each one with different operators. Thus, the sector is structured in (i) reception, (ii) storage and regasification, (iii) underground storage, (iv) transportation, (v) distribution, and (vi) commercialization.
This briefing intends to give an overview on the functioning and organization of the different activities of the Portuguese Natural Gas Sector and on the main players of the sector.