IEA holds workshop on natural gas market design in Brazil

The IEA held a workshop on natural gas market design in Brazil on 23 August, hosted by the Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME). The workshop was part of the IEA-Brazil gas market peer-review and dialogue process in which experts from the IEA and IEA member countries developed policy recommendations for Brazil’s Gas to Grow (Gás para Crescer) initiative. The event provided the opportunity for IEA experts to present their preliminary evaluations and recommendations for Brazil, based on experience with the reform of the European natural gas market. 

The workshop was opened by Mr Márcio Félix, MME's Deputy Minister, Mr João Vicente Carvalho, MME's Secretary for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels, Mr Duarte Figueira, IEA Head of Division for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America.

Participants took part in three sessions: main elements for the opening of the natural gas market, applicability of unbundling models in the specific context of Brazil, and network codes. The sessions featured expert presentations from Markus Krug (Gas expert E-Control, Austria) and Wim van ‘t Hof (Gas Coordinator, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, The Netherlands), and comments from a panel of Brazilian experts from the Brazilian Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels Institute (IBP), the Institute of Economics of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), the Center for Studies in Regulation and Infrastructure of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), the Brazilian Association of Large Industrial Energy Consumers and Free Consumers (Abrace), Petróleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) and of the Association of Natural Gas Transportation Companies for Gas Pipelines (ATGás).

The final outcome of the IEA-Brazil gas market peer-review and dialogue process, which has been supported by the UK Prosperity Fund through a voluntary contribution, will be an IEA special report including the final recommendations.