The New Natural Gas Law provides for authorization instead of a concession to operate the natural gas transportation service and allows storage in depleted oil fields. According to the text, the granting of authorization for the construction or expansion of gas pipelines should occur after a public call to be made by the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP).

If there is more than one interested party for the construction of a gas pipeline, the ANP must make a public selection process. Authorizations will not have a definite period of validity and can only be revoked at the request of the company, if it seriously fails or breaches obligations, if the pipeline is deactivated or if the company interferes or is interfered with by other agents in the gas industry.

The change in the gas pipeline exploitation regime is proposed under the justification of making the process simpler than the current concessions (with auctions), preventing a company from acting in several stages of production and avoid verticalization, when transporters, producers and traders of the gas chain form societies.

Current grants 

Currently, gas transportation is granted to the private sector through a public bidding concession for 30 years based on the criterion of lowest annual revenue offered in relation to the maximum limit defined in the notice. The tariff is proportional to this discount.

The rule proposed in the New Gas Law determines that the ANP will define the maximum revenue that the carrier can obtain with the service only after public consultation, as well as the criteria for readjustment and revision of tariffs.

The system for contracting the transportation of natural gas will be similar to the one currently in existence, in which a certain capacity is entered for the gas to enter or exit the pipeline. The difference is that the ANP will no longer need to make a public call for this.

However, the current gas transportation contracts must adapt to the new system within five years from the publication of the future law, allowing compensation, through tariff, of any losses. Current consumption and gas pipeline regimes to supply fertilizer and refinery manufacturers will remain the same.

Market concentration 

The text approved by the Chamber foresees mechanisms to enable the deconcentration of the gas market, in which Petrobras participates with 100% of the import and processing and about 80% of the production. The company has been divesting its participation in the transport and distribution chains after signing a Term of Commitment for Cessation of Practice (TCC) with the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (Cade).

The approved text brings adaptations for this new phase. To this end, it determines the ANP to monitor the natural gas market to stimulate competitiveness and reduce concentration, using mechanisms such as the compulsory transfer of transport capacity, flow of production and processing; obligation to sell, at auction, part of the marketing volumes held by companies with a high market share; and restriction on the sale of natural gas between companies in the same production areas. Before adopting these measures, the ANP must listen to Cade.

The project also guarantees access, by contract, for companies in the sector to terminals, gas pipelines that drain production and to treatment or processing facilities for liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Although preference is given to the use of these facilities by the owner, the measure aims to prevent companies from the same group from controlling the entire destination of the gas, from its extraction or import to the final consumer.

If there is no agreement on remuneration or the practice of accessing these facilities to obtain gas, the ANP will decide on the matter. However, the parties may, in agreement, choose another means of dispute resolution.