Viewpoint ITLMM No. 176 April kT1:1 Ada Karina Private Participation in the Transmission Izaguirre and Distribution of Natural Gas- Recent Trends The World Bank's Private The 1990s have seen a significant increase in struction or ownership of gas transport infra- Participation in Infra- private participation in the transmission and dis- structure has been prompted not only by the structure (PPI) Project tiuintasor no nifa Database covers private tribution transport) of natural gas in developing acceptance of private participation in infra- participation in inra- countries. Until 1990 private participation in the structure, but also by public sector budget structure in developing construction and ownership of natural gas trans- constraints. countries. The database compiles information on port facilities in these countries was limited to a privatelyownedorman- few isolated cases. The increasing participation Between 1990 and 1997 twenty-six developing aged electricity, of the private sector in gas transport has resulted countries introduced private participation in the telecnmmunicarione, transport, water, and mainly from a growing demand for new gas transmission and distribution of natural gas (fig- naturalgastransmission transport facilities coinciding with a growing ure 1). This Note. wbhich draws on the World and distribution projects. consensus in favor of private participation in Bank's PPI Project Database, provides an over- This Note focuses on the natural gas projects that infrastructure. The increasing demand for gas view of the patterns and trends in the projects in reached financial clo- transport facilities has been driven by the strong these countries. The database covers only pro- sure betsveen 1990 and growth in energy demand, discoveries of impor- jects that transport natural gas to end users; cap- 1997, surveying regional tant natural gas fields, and concerns abDout the tive pipelines owned by private upstream gas trends in and types of e private participation. environment. Private involvement in the con- producers and condensate operations are not FIGURE 1 DEVELOPING COUNTRIES WITH TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION PROJECTS WITH PRIVATE PARTICIPATION, 1990-97 7~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ :1 1 projiect - !i ; r * 2-3 projects w& G * -11 projectsv Source: PPI Project Database. EI ~~~~The World Bank Group *Finance, Private Sector, and Infrastructure Network 2 Private Participation in the Transmission and Distribution of Natural Gas-Recent Trends Database coverage Operations and management contracts. The pri- To be included, a project must have reached vate entity takes over the management of a state- financial closure and directly or indirectly owned enterprise for a given period. This serve the general public. category includes management contracts and * The sectors covered are electricity, natural gas, leases. telecommunications, transport, and water. Operations and management contracts with * The period covered is 1984-97. major capital expenditure. A private consortium * The natural gas sector includes two segments: takes over the management of a state-owned transmission and distribution. The database enterprise for a given period during which the excludes liquefied natural gas plants, movable private entity also assumes significant assets, incinerators, stand-alone solid waste investment risk. This category includes build- projects, and small projects such as windmills. transfer-operate, build-lease-transfer, and build- * The database covers developing countries, as rehabilitate-operate-transfer contracts as defined and classified by the World Bank, in East applied to existing facilities. Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle Definition of financial closure. For greenfield pro- East and North Africa, South Asia, and Sub- jects and for operations and management con- Saharan Africa. tracts with major capital expenditure, financial closure is defined as the existence of a legally Definition of private participation. The private com- binding commitment of equity holders or debt pany must assume operating risk during the oper- financiers to provide or mobilize funding forthe ating period or assume development and operating project. The funding must account for a significant risk during the contract period. In addition, the part of the project cost, securing the construction operator must consist of one or more corporate of the facility. entities with significant private equity participa- For operations and management contracts, there tion that are separate from any government agency. must be a lease agreement or a contract authorizing the commencement of management or lease ser- Definition of a project unit. A corporate entity cre- vice. For divestitures, the equity holders must have ated to operate infrastructure facilities is consid- a legally binding commitment to acquire the assets ered a project. When two or more physical of the facility. facilities are operated by the same corporate entity, all are considered as one project. Sources World Wide Web Project types * Commercial databases * Divestitures. A private consortium buys an equity * Specialized publications stake in a state-owned enterprise. The private * Developers and sponsors stake may or may not imply private management * Regulatory agencies of the company. * Greenfield projects. A private entity or a public- Contact private joint venture build and operate a new The database is maintained by the World Bank's facility. This category includes build-own- Private Participation in Infrastructure Group. For transfer and build-own-operate contracts as well more information contact Mina Salehi at as merchant power plants. 202 473 7157 or msalehi@worldbank.org. The World Bank Group 3 included (box 1). The form of private participa- works, while greenfield projects have occurred tion varies-ranging from greenfield projects to mainly in countries with little or no transport export natural gas from Algeria to Europe or to infrastructure for natural gas. create a natural gas distribution market in Mexico to the privatization of existing assets in Argentina Operations and management contracts with sig- and Hungary. During 1990-97 the private sector nificant capital expenditure have been rare in gas took on the operations or construction risk of transport facilities, particularly relative to the seventy-seven natural gas transport projects, water sector.2 By 1997 only two operations and with investments totaling US$18.9 billion (figures management contracts involving significant capi- 2 and 3) 1 tal expenditure had been signed. One was for the The diverse development levels of the natural gas shetorerin developingmcuntrievs raishe policy iass FIGURE 2 NATURAL GAS TRANSPORT PROJECTS WITH PRIVATE sector in developing countries raise policv issues PARTICIPATION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, 1990-97 for private participation that are quite different from those in other infrastructure sectors. Except 25 for countries in Europe and Central Asia and a few in Asia and Latin America, most developing coun- _ tries have limited or no gas resources or transport 20 facilities (figures 1 and 4). Some countries have promoted private involvement in existing facilities, 15 while others have relied on the private sector to establish new gas networks. A third group of coun- 10 tries has no gas network-public or private. 5 Although private participation in natural g,as transport projects has increased significantlv in 0 recent years, it rernains limited. Still, fouI trends 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 are evident: Source: PPI Project Database. * Divestitures and greenfield projects are more common than operations and management contracts. FIGURE 3 INVESTMENT IN PRIVATE NATURAL GAS TRANSPORT * Stand-alone transmission and distribution PROJECTS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, 1990-97 projects are more common than integrated (transmission, distribution, and sometinmes pro- 1997 US$ millions duction) projects. 5,000 * Export-oriente(l projects are starting to emerge. * Projects are concentrated in certain regions 4,000 and countries. 3,000 Divestitures and greenfield projects dominate 2,000 Of the total investment in private gas transport 1 000 projects, about 56 percent has gone to the fortv- eight divestitures and 40 percent has gone to the twenty-seven greenfield projects (figure 5). As 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 might be expected, divestitures have occurred in countries with well-developed pipeline net- Source:PPI Project Database. 4 Private Participation in the Transmission and Distribution of Natural Gas-Recent Trends FIGURE 4 WORLD GAS RESOURCES Trillions of cubic meters Western Europe CIS and Central Europe EastAsia Latin America ' t Additional natural gas resources (total: 150 trillion cubic meters) Proved recoverable natural gas reserves (total: 133 trillion cubic meters) Note: CIS is Commonwealth of Independent States. Source: Ruhrgas. rehabilitation and operation of the natural gas FIGURE 5 INVESTMENT IN PRIVATE NATURAL GAS TRANSPORT transmission system in Kazakhstan. The other was PROJECTS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES BY TYPE for the expansion and operation of a small dist- OF PROJECT, 1990-97 ribution system in Turkey. Operations and man- 1997 US$ millions agement contracts (without capital expenditure) and lease contracts have not featured as a form of 5,000 private participation in the natural gas sector. Investments focus on stand-alone 4,000 projects Most private investment in gas transport projects 3,000 has been concentrated in vertically deintegrated facilities. Of the total invested, 64 percent has been captured by the twenty-two projects 2.000 involving the operation or construction of trans- mission facilities (figure 6 and table 1). Most of these projects have been in Latin America and 1,000 the Caribbean (twelve projects). Stand-alone dis- tribution facilities, in turn, have been concen- trated in Europe and Central Asia (twenty-five) 0 199 1992 13 9 1 1996 and Latin America and the Caribbean (twenty- 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 one). The predominance of stand-alone projects * Divestitures C Greenfield * Operations and management contracts might be explained by increasing attempts by projects with capital expenditure government to create more competitive markets for natural gas supply, building on experiences Source: PPI Project Database. in the United Kingdom and the United States. The World Bank Group 5 FIGURE 6 INVESTMENT IN PRIVATE NATURAL GAS TRANSPORT PROJECTS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES BY SEGMENT, 1990-97 Transmission and distribution 90/a There have been just five integrated-utility gas --- projects involving private participation, and most have been in Europe and Central Asia (Latvias Gaze in Latvia, Eesti Gas in Estonia. Lietuvos Dujo in Lithuania, Gazprom in the Russian Fed- eration, and Petronas Gas in Malaysia). Private involvement in these projects has fallen short of Distribution tull private ownership. Export-oriented pipelines emerge Transmission 64% Another feature of the private participation in nat- ural gas has been the implementation of large export-oriented pipeline projects. The natural gas industry requires access to gas fields, which may or may not exist in a cotntry. Thus the develop- Source: PPI Project Database. ment or expansion of a domestic gas industry has required international gas trade. Five private pipe- line projects of this type, representing total invest- TABLE 1 PRIVATE NATURAL GAS TRANSPORT PROJECTS IN ment of US$4 billion, reached financial closure DEVELOPING COUNTRIES BY SEGMENT, 1990-97 between 1990 and 1997: the Yadana gas pipeline from Myanmar to Thailand, the Maghreb gas Total investment pipeline from Algeria to Europe, the Gas-Andes in projects with pipeline from Argentina to Chile, and the sections _ of the Yamal gas pipeline in Belarus and Poland. S rvt atcpto Among those projects, the Argentine-Chilean gas Segment _ (1997 US$ millions) pipeline was the first to introduce natural gas into a country (Chile). The project, developed by a Distribution 50 5,013 iully private consortium, is part of a business plan Transmission 22 12,102 to develop Chile's natural gas industrv. Z, ~~~~~~~~Transmission and distribution 5 1,762 More cross-border projects are expected to be Total 77 18,876 implemented in the next few years. In addition Source PPI Project Database. to the Bolivia-Brazil pipeline now close to com- pletion, there are plans for international trans- mission pipelines in most regions.3 Examples financial closure in the region, mobilizing invest- include proposals to develop pipelines from ments of US$9.3 billion, or 49 percent of the total Turkmenistan to Turkey, from Indonesia to Sing- investment in private projects in the sector apore, from Bangladesh and Oman to India, from between 1990 and 1997 (table 2). Countries in Argentina to Chile and Uruguay, and from Egypt Europe and Central Asia have also been active to Israel and other countries in the Middle East. in opening their natural gas utilities to the pri- vate sector, awarditng thirty-three projects repre- Investments reflect a regional and senting total investment of US$3 billion during national concentration the same period. Ilrivate sector activity in other regions has been limited to a few projects. Investment in private natural gas transport pro- jects is concentrated in Latin America and the As in the electricity and water sectors, a few coun- Caribbean. Thirty-three projects have reached tries capture most projects and investments.4 The 6 Private Participation in the Transmission and Distribution of Natural Gas-Recent Trends TABLE 2 PRIVATE NATURAL GAS TRANSPORT PROJECTS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES BY REGION, 1990-97 American countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, ___________________________ Chile, Colombia, and Mexico) that have devel- ___________________________________ __ l oped a local gas industry. In most of these coun- _ l _ - _ _ tries private participation in natural gas projects has been part of broader sector reform that has East Asia and the Pacific 3,131 5 usually included the establishment of new regu- Europe and Central Asia 3,087 33 latory frameworks and the vertical separation of Latin America and the Caribbean 9,274 33 the sector into its three basic business units (pro- Middle East and North Africa 3,271 2 duction, transmission, and distribution). New legal frameworks in these countries have also South Asia 75 3 required mandatory open access to pipelines for Sub-Saharan Africa 40 1 third parties in order to promote competition in Total 18,878 77 natural gas markets. Argentina and Chile have been the most market-oriented reformers in the Source: PPI Project Database. region, creating competitive market structures, transferring investment decisions to the market, and allowing full private ownership of transmis- top five countries ranked by investment in pro- sion and distribution assets. jects involving private participation accounted for 33 percent of all projects and almost 67 percent Most natural gas reforms in Latin America have of total investment in 1990-97 (table 3). Among also been a component of broader energy those five countries, two (Argentina and Algeria) reforms. Six of the seven countries started to captured about half of the total investment in the reform their natural gas sectors at the same time sector. The list of top five countries changes sig- that they were liberalizing their electricity sectors. nificantly when the countries are ranked by num- ber of projects, although the high concentration Latin American countries have chosen different of projects in a few countries remains (table 4). forms of private participation depending on the These changes in ranking can be partly explained initial development of their natural gas facilities. by divestiture approaches taken by the Czech Countries with a fully developed network, like Republic and Kazakhstan, which privatized their Argentina, or with main transportation assets, natural gas utilities through mass (voucher) pri- like Bolivia and Brazil, have opted for divesti- vatization schemes. tures. Fifteen of the seventeen divestitures in the region are located in these three countries. Other A breakdown of investment by project reveals a countries with limited or no transportation net- similarly high concentration of resources in few works-such as Chile, Colombia, and Mexico- projects. The top five projects accounted for have focused on constructing facilities through more than 40 percent of total investment in the greenfield projects. The fifteen greenfield pro- sector in 1990-97 (table 5). Three of these pro- jects in the region are all in these three countries. jects were in Argentina, representing around 37 More projects are expected in these countries, percent of the investment in divestitures. The and in others such as 'ruguay and Peru, as the Maghreb gas pipeline from Algeria to Europe, in private sector leads the drive to make natural gas turn, accounted for 45 percent of the investment available to all major urban centers. in greenfield projects. Europe and Central Asia Latin America and the Caribbean Private participation in natural gas transport in The private sector has been involved in the Europe and Central Asia has focused on the pri- transportation of natural gas in the six Latin vatization of existing assets. Of the thirty-three The World Bank Group 7 TABLE 3 TOP FIVE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES BY INVESTMENT IN PRIVATE NATURAL GAS TRANSPORT PROJECTS, 1990-97 private gas transport projects in the region, Total investment - twenty-nine have been divestitures, accounting in projects with for 59 percent of the investment in the region. The in prticipation privatization mechanism has differed across coui- private participation tries. Hungary sold controlling stakes to private Country (1997 US$ millions) consortia, reflecting the priority it puts on improv- ing the efficiency and reliability of existing assets. Argentina 6,284 10 The Czech Republic, Kazakhstan. and the Russian Algeria 2,570 1 Federation opted for mass privatization programs. Malaysia 1,436 2 And Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania privatized their Malysia natural gas companies by creating joint ventures Hungary 1,324 7 with Gazprom, Russia's partially privatized and Colombia 938 5 vertically integrated natural gas company. Total 12,551 25 Although private participation in natural gas Source: PPI Project Database. activities has increased significantly in the region, the new investment that has come with divestitures has been minimal. The main reasons TABLE 4 TOP FIVE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES BY NUMBER OF appear to be low retail natural gas tariffs, which PRIVATE NATURAL GAS TRANSPORT PROJECTS, have impaired the financial viability of natural 1990-97 gas utilities, and underdeveloped legal and reg- ulatory frameworks.5 I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~, East Asia and the Pacific East Asian countries can he considered in two .... groups. The first group comprises countries with existing gas transport facilities, such as the Argentina 11 6,284 Republic of Korea, Malavsia, and Thailand. In Kazakhstan 11 a these countries (except Korea) natural gas trans- Mexico 10 604 mission and distribution is still a business reserved for the public sector," This situation mir- h 7 8 a rors that in these countries' electricity sectors, Hungary 7 1,324 which remain dominated by state-owned enter- Total 47 8,211 prises. The second group comprises countries prises. Theiteclornd gastranspcomprtfacilsies, countis a. Both countries privatized their gas utilities through mass pfivatization, so there is no with limitedl or no gas transport facilities, such as divestiture revenue. China, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Source:PPI Project Database. Private participation in the region has been restricted to a few greenfield projects, mainly for the construction of new transmission projects in Indonesia and the Philippines are pipelines (three projects) and one small distri- implemented. bution system. The only divestiture, which was partial, took place in Malaysia and took the South Asia form of a public offering aimed at raising funds rather than transferring control to the private Private participation in South Asia has been lim- sector. This situation is expected to change as ited to three small greenfield projects to develop privatization proposals in Korea and greenfield or expand distribution facilities in India. But if 8 Private Participation in the Transmission and Distribution of Natural Gas-Recent Trends TABLE 5 TOP FIVE PRIVATE NATURAL GAS TRANSPORT PROJECTS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, 1990-97 C_E -= - Conclusion Private participation in the transmission and dis- Maghreb Gas pipeline from Algeria/ tribution of natural gas has increased signifi- Algeria to Europe Morocco 2,556 cantly in recent years and should continue to Transportadora de Gas del Stur Argentina 1,939 expand. Experiences in Argentina and Chile Petronas Gas Sdn Bhd Malaysia 1,265 show that the private sector can play the leading Transportadora de Gas del Norte Argentina 1,070 role in developing or expanding the natural gas Distribudora de Gas industry. As in other infrastructure sectors, the Distribuldora de Gas kev role for the government is to establish an appropriate enabling environment, including Total 7,798 well-defined policies and a sound regulatory Source:, PPI Project Database. framework. The growth in privatelv financed and operated export projects promises to bring the economic and environmental benefits of nat- ural gas to a larger number of countries. recent proposals to privatize natural gas facilities in India and to build cross-border greenfield All dollar ainounts are in 1997 r-S. dollars. The PPI Plroject transmission pipelines from Bangladesh or Datahase records total investment, nor private investment alone, Viewpoint is an open Oman to India are implemented, there should be in infrastrUcturc projects involving private participation. T'here were no natural gas projects involving ptivate participation in forum ntended to a significant increase in private participation in developing countries in 1990 and 1991. encourage the region over the next few vears. 2 See Gisele Silva, Nicola Tynan, and Yesin Yil.maaz, Private dissemination of and 'Parnicipation in the Water and Sewerage Sector-Recent Trends" innovations, and best Middle East and North Africa (Viewpoint 147; August 1998). prnactices, foxanding idl at n othArc See Peter L. taw andi Nelson de Franco, "International Gas Trade- practices for expanding The Bolivia-Brazil Gas Pipeline' (Viewpoint 144, May 1998). vies published are Private participation in natural gas in the Middle 4 See Gisete Silva, Nicola Tynan, and Vcsin Yilmaz. Private views ublishd are Privat partiipatin in ntural as inthe Nl(Adle Panicipation in the WXater antic Scsverage Sector-Recent TFrends' those of the authors and East and North Africa has focused on one export- (Viewpoint 147, August 1998), and Ade a Karina teagUirre, 'Private should not be attributed oriented greenfield project (the Maghreb gas Participation in the Electricity Sector (Viewvpoint 154, Septembelr to the World Bank or any of its affiliated organiza- pipeline in Algeria) and one domestic pipeline 1998) For a discussion on the status of natural gas reftorin in ELiutope and tions. Nor do any of the (Tunisia). But private participation in the region Central Asia see Econonic Commission for EtLrope, RestrulctuLring conclusions represent should increase over the next few years if pro- of the Gas Irdustry in Transition Countries" (1998). offrcial po icy of the jects awarded in Egypt to provide natural gas to ost natural gas distrihution facilities in Korea are owned hy long- Wer(d Bank or of its ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~estahDlished investor-owned utilities. Executive Directors or areas with no supply and other expoit-oriented the countries they pipeline proposals are implemented. represent. Ada Karina Izaguirre (aizaguirre To order additional Sub-Saharan Africa @worldbank.org), Consultant, Private copies please call Participation in Infrastructure Group 202 458 1 111 or contact Suzanne Smith, editor, Private participation in natural gas in Sub-Saharan Room Fl 1 K-208, Africa has been limited to one greenfield project, The World Bank, the CI-11 gas pipeline in Cote d'Ivoire. There is 1818 H Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20433, also a proposal for the Nigerian government and or Internet address Chevron to build a West African gas pipeline. The ssmith7@worldbank.org. limited activity in the region is explained mainly The seties is also available on-line by the lack of gas reserves and the limited trans- (www.worldbank.org/ port infrastructure in the region (except in South html/fpd/notes/). Africa). Small domestic markets in most countries @ Printed on recycled have also limited the development of gas distrib- paper ution infrastructure.