How can we grant full property rights to citizens and local authorities who invested in natural gas distribution networks?

The experts say the programme documents approved by the Government in 2001-2002 left the funding sources unclear and set no registration mechanisms or status for private investors, especially citizens and local public authorities. The programme tripled the length of the gas distribution networks but left problems unresolved: no defined ownership, with a risk that “ownerless pipelines” are claimed by third parties; tariff inequities for consumer groups that claimed ownership; and capital repairs not included in the tariff.

At the beginning of 2017, about 14.3 thousand km of network, two thirds of the total, were not integrated into the economic circuit, including roughly 1,250 km of ownerless distribution pipelines. Existing regulations offered no holistic solution. The roadmap would provide a legal framework for ownership, leverage over the gas distributor, return the networks to the economic circuit and create a new major issuer on the capital market.