To What Extent do Take-or-Pay Contracts facilitate the Development of Infant Gas Markets and What Challenges do they pose at a Time of Liberalisation?
Article from: OGEL 4 (2003), in National and International Issues in Natural Gas Development
Summary
This paper will discuss take-or-pay (TOP) obligations as an essential part of the non price-determined terms of common gas sales agreements by questioning both the legal and the economic logic underlying these terms. It analyses to what extent these provisions facilitate the development of infant gas markets but takes also mature ones into account. Consequently, it asks whether the merits of long-term TOP contracts will outweigh their risks if the economical or regulatory framework of gas markets changes towards deregulation. This approach is justifiable by the difficulties that ...