Natural gas transmission tariffs in a market economy

Natural gas, like electricity, is an energy that is distributed via a network; a physical transmission and distribution infrastructure is the almost obligatory link between the producer (or supplier) and the consumer. Of course, there are special cases, such as self-consumption, but today this represents only a very modest proportion of gas consumption. Natural gas and electricity have something in common: they are both public utilities. In France, the right to electricity has been enshrined in law since 2000. All French residents have been connected to the grid since rural electrification was completed (in the early 1960s). On the other hand, not all French residents are connected to the gas network (only 1/3), and this is due to the prohibitive cost of extending pipelines in rural areas; there is only a right to gas in territories where gas is distributed. We speak of an attenuated public service mission. For other consumers, there are substitutes such as liquefied petroleum gases (LPG, butane, propane), which are by-products of petroleum distillation.

But there are also important differences between these two energies: gas can be stored, electricity cannot (at least on a large scale). Electricity has captive uses (lighting, electrical machines and appliances), while gas does not. We can do without gas, even if it has its virtues (less polluting than coal or fuel oil). Electricity is an energy with promising prospects as part of the low-carbon energy transition. Electricity currently accounts for around 25-27% of final energy consumption in France, and its share is set to rise to 55% by 2050. Electricity is expected to increasingly replace carbon-based energies (oil, coal and gas) in a variety of applications, including mobility. Nuclear, hydro, wind and solar power are all decarbonized energies. By 2023, natural gas will account for around 20% of final energy consumption in France, but this share is set to decline as fossil fuels are gradually phased out. Electricity is a national energy source (France is even a net exporter to neighboring countries), whereas natural gas is today totally imported (with the exception of a few quantities extracted from the subsoil in eastern and south-western France). This gas is partly imported via pipelines, and increasingly in the form of LNG (liquefied natural gas) when it comes from geographically distant sources.

Natural gas has one disadvantage over oil: it is very expensive to transport and has no "captive" uses. To transport gas over long distances, you need to build pipelines with compressor stations every 100 or 150 kilometers to propel the gas. Today, we know how to build pipelines under the sea, as is the case in the Mediterranean between Tunisia and Sicily, or in the Baltic Sea between Russia and Germany, but beyond...