The assessment of natural gas pricing

Prices of natural gas is a huge political and economic problem. This creates not only additional costs to households and industries but also affects the corporate global competitiveness. In order to ensure that Europe is going to deal with changes in energy market, it is necessary to ensure that consumers receive a sustainable and affordable energy and industry is able to maintain its competitiveness. The purpose of this paper is to analyze pricing structure and to identify factors with the most affect on natural gas price. To achieve this the changes in the price of natural gas in the EU were analyzed; gas pricing structure was investigated; effects on household and organization costs for natural gas were determined The analysis of scientific literature, statistical data, and legislation are used. A comparative and causality analysis of EU and other countries allowed to identify factors having most effect on the price. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.