Spain: Industrial Groups urge CNMC to control price of natural gas

The Gas Industrial Association, along with nine other industry groups from various sectors, have asked Spain’s National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) to set caps on toll prices for natural gas next year, in order to help solve the problem presented by high prices of this fuel and its effect on competitiveness.

Industrial use accounts for 62% of total national gas consumption, with prices rising each year, according to Gas Industrial’s data. Competitiveness has worsened in the last eight years, according to this data, reaching levels up to 25% below its counterparts in Europe on average. Spanish industrialists pay double the French, triple the British, and up to six times more than the Germans in some cases, Gas Industrial indicated.

The CNMC regained the power to regulate, fix, and control the prices and rates of the energy market in Spain last January, following years of conflict with other branches of government.