A new mode of pipeline transportation management after structural reform of EU natural gas industrial chains

It has been 16 years since the beginning of EU natural gas industrial chain's structural reform in 1998 and the reform has become even faster after 2009. Three natural gas directives and two natural gas transmission networks regulations of EU have laid the foundations for a new mode of pipeline transportation management. In addition, the establishment of regulators, set-up of regional initiatives and acceleration of infrastructure construction guarantee the promotion of this new mode. The new mode of EU pipeline transportation management within a series of "Network Codes" is still in improvement in the following aspects: when it comes to the rules for pipeline transportation tariff, EU strongly recommends the "Entry-Exit" tariff system which can better reflect cost, while the operation of each country mainly focuses on the pipeline transportation capacity tariff and some countries also charge commodity tariff, but there exists big difference between specific methods of each country. For the distribution of pipeline transportation capacity, EU chooses to distribute the pipeline transportation capacity of its interconnection points through auction mechanism, and the pipeline transported capacity products are different in deadline and "reliability". The pipeline transportation congestion management mechanisms such as "oversubscription and buy-back scheme" and "use-it-or-lose-it mechanism" adopted by EU can improve the efficiency of pipe network system and reduce pipeline transportation congestion. Moreover, the "pipeline transportation balancing mechanism" adopted by EU can improve safety and efficiency of pipe network system as well as promote the short-term transaction of natural gas.