With increasing reliance upon internationally traded oil and gas, and many questions about what constitutes a ‘market price’ for gas, these workshops have been part of an effort by the Secretariat to promote a common understanding of the background to developments in international energy markets.

"We see this debate as essential to a productive international dialogue on energy,"

commented André Mernier, the Energy Charter Secretary General

"and I am very grateful to the authorities from different member states that have helped to organise these events".

Each workshop was tailored to the requests of the host organisation, but a common denominator was the question of international price formation for natural gas. Unlike oil, gas has not yet developed an international market, but rather a series of different regional and national markets. These markets have their own distinctive characteristics and pricing mechanisms, and are only now starting to be linked by the trade in liquefied natural gas.

International price formation for natural gas is a question analysed in detail in the study released by the Energy Charter Secretariat:

• Putting a Price on Energy: International Pricing Mechanisms for Oil and Gas (2007)

Some of the workshops also covered issues of transportation and transit tariffs, based on:

• From Wellhead to Market: Oil Pipeline Tariffs and Tariff Methodologies in Selected Energy Charter Member Countries (2007)
• Gas Transit Tariffs in Selected ECT Countries (2006)