Dated 23 May 2000, the decree by law n° 164 under the Italian rules was adopted, known also as the Letta decree (that came into effect via the directive n° 98/30/CE established by common law for the internal natural gas market) with the scope to favour the process of liberalising the natural gas market and with the intention of creating a competitive market.
The Decree stated that business activities of importing, exporting, transportation and dispatch, distribution and the sale of natural gas, in whatever form and for whatever use, are free. The Decree introduced also the principle of corporate separation: it states, in fact, that ”with effect from 1 January 2002, the transport and dispatch of natural gas is subject to corporate separation from all other activities, except storage, which is however subject to separate accounting and management from transport and dispatch and corporate separation from all the other activities in the gas sector”. The same principle also applies to “distribution”, which means the management of the natural gas pipeline network by distribution companies.
From the 1 January 2003 all natural gas users are eligible are free, to buy gas directly from the suppliers available in the market. The gas market was previously run as a monopoly, but with the liberalisation in some sectors, like in sales, it has started to become competitive. Several companies were created to compete offerinf syupply in the gas market as well as EGL Italia.
In view of the need to continue the process of liberalization and development of a competitive market in gas, the Authority for Electricity and Gas has set the stage for implementation in Italy of a "stock exchange" of natural gas. As a first step was to create the Virtual Trading Point (PSV), a virtual place for the trading of gas between operators without price settlement. Given the limited liquidity of the gas market in Italy, PSV is now only an opportunity for shippers to balance its position.
