The drivers behind the globalisation of natural gas markets

Today, the globalisation of natural gas markets is a topic much discussed amongst gas industry practitioners, policy makers and academics. If there is a consensus on a tendency towards the "commoditisation" of natural gas markets, there is less agreement on the certainty of the global approach to gas marketing. The aim of this paper is to untangle the main drivers behind the globalisation of natural gas markets, both on the demand and supply sides, and to discuss problems related to the market structure, such as price arbitrages and organised markets. The paper will conclude that the globalisation of natural gas markets cannot be approached as a deterministic problem and as a consequence, there is still no precise answer as to when the different regional gas markets will forge a global one.