Exxon warns over gas liberalisation
Speaking at an oil and gas conference, the head of Exxon's European gas marketing, Brian Hamilton, warned that the EU's efforts to liberalise the gas market could seriously undermine the sector, writes the Financial Times. Exxon is the world's largest energy group.
The EU intends to open its energy markets fully to competition through the phased implementation of its gas and electricity directives. However, Mr Hamilton warned that the EU was in danger of only partially completing this process, and simply swapping one set of regulations for another. "Government intervention is a poor substitute for free market signals," he said. "Europe's regulators need to resist the temptation to over-regulate."
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Some 750bn euros has been invested in the European gas network over the past 40 years. Mr Hamilton believes that a further 250m-350m euros would be needed over the next 20 years to meet projected increases in demand.