Gas: The Authority promotes further integration of the Italian market in Europe

Milan, September 15, 2015

Italian version

An Italian gas market that is even more fluid and integrated with European markets, with new quantities of available gas and therefore increased competition, to the benefit of consumers and companies: this is the effect of the new regulations approved by the Authority at the end of a path of innovation travelled along in recent months. With resolution 436/2015/R/gas, the Authority has effectively approved the documents that allow access by the 'Third Party Exchange' '[1] of other European countries, through the Gestore dei Mercati Energetici, GME (Energy Markets Operator), to the Italian national market, hence extending the range of future products with actual gas delivery. Specifically, the update of the agreement between GME and Snam and of the conditions for access to the Virtual Trading Point (PSV)[2] have been approved.

In particular, the new regulations will promote the development of the range of future products with delivery to the PSV by the so-called 'Third Party Exchanges', that manage platforms on which products are negotiated with actual delivery to the main hubs on mainland Italy. The future Italian market's increased liquidity also allows for a more reliable and representative price reference to be formed, so that it becomes ever more structural and objective in Italy too. 
In detail, the update of the Snam-GME Agreement and of the conditions of access to the PSV governs the application processes and information flow management processes necessary to allow GME to register with the PSV, on behalf of the 'Third Party Exchanges', the net balances of concluded transactions in the markets managed by said Third Party Exchanges.
Resolution 436/2015/R/gas is available on the website www.autorita.energia.it
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[1] 'Third Party Exchange' refers to: the manager of a regulated market in which derivative financial instruments are traded which require actual physical delivery and whose compensation activities and guarantee of transactions concluded on said market are regulated by means of a clearing house (i.e. the third party who assumes counterparty risk), or it is the clearing house itself that, directly or through its own subsidiary or investee companies, is responsible for the fulfilment of physical delivery of the products on offer.  This third party  must also be subject to the regulations of national and supranational  authorities, that carry out surveillance activities in the country in which it is registered or in which it operates.
[2] The PSV is a virtual hub, i.e. a point located conceptually between the entry points and exit points of the National Gas Pipeline Network (RN), where it is possible to carry out trades and transfers of gas introduced into the network itself. Managed by the Snam Gas Network, it offers operators a commercial balancing tool for the delivery of volumes of gas traded between the users.  In detail, the PSV makes it possible to notify the transport system manager (Snam Gas Network) about the transfer of gas between users so that they are recorded in their daily analyses. The transfers that can be recorded are both transfers made through bilateral contracts (known as over-the-counter, OTC), and transfers undertaken in the field of regulated markets, i.e. up to now, the market managed by GME and, with the 436/2015/R/gas Resolution, now also those managed by the Third Party Exchanges.